Latvia

Summary

Latvia is offered by some outfitters as a bowhunting destination, with the note that the hunt takes place in a fenced ground. The law says otherwise. The Hunting Law lists crossbows and bows, together, among the prohibited hunting means, and it carries a fine written for the bow alone. Parliament had the chance to open the bow in 2013, when the draft of the current law would have allowed it, and struck it out at the final reading after a public protest. In February 2026 the bowhunting association asked the parliamentary committee, in a letter filed under a bill on other matters, to remove the bow from the list; the committee postponed the bill.

The crossbow is banned by the same line, with a heavier fine and a possible suspension of the right to hunt.

The legal mechanism

• Hunting Law, § 24 (9): hunting with the following prohibited means is unlawful hunting: bird lime, sound recordings, artificial light and night sights outside the wild boar, fox and raccoon dog exceptions, laser sights, non-selective nets and traps, crossbows and bows (point i), semi-automatics over three rounds, vehicles and aircraft, weapons not classified as hunting firearms, thermal sights. The list has no derogation clause: the law gives no ministry or agency the power to allow one of these means for a purpose or a place.
• Hunting Law, § 32 (3): hunting with a bow is fined at 4 to 70 fine units. The crossbow, under § 32 (8), is fined at 8 to 100 units with a possible ban on hunting for up to a year. This is the one place where the law treats the bow separately from the crossbow, and it does so to punish it.
• Hunting Law, § 1 and § 16: hunting tools are traps, snares or other tools usable for hunting game; a foreigner may hunt on a permit issued by the State Forest Service against the home hunting document, and may use hunting firearms and hunting tools. The permit does not widen the list of lawful means.
• Hunting Regulations: the Cabinet regulation that sets species, seasons, weapons rules and the safety requirements does not mention the bow at all. It neither opens nor restricts it; the ban stands in the law.
• Fenced grounds: the Hunting Law counts game kept in fenced areas as game, and says that killing it with hunting firearms and hunting tools is equated to hunting, to which only the safety requirements of the hunting rules apply (§ 3 (2) 1). Regulation No. 4 on such enclosures says in point 9 that hunting in the extensive breeding zone is organised according to the hunting legislation. Neither text names the bow, and no guidance from the State Forest Service was found. Whether the ban of § 24 reaches inside a fence is therefore an open question in the texts; the outfitters’ claim that the bow became legal in fenced grounds in 2021 cites no provision, and the 2021 amendments we read concern hunting areas, towns and night optics, not the bow.
• History: at the third reading on 20 June 2013, parliament removed the bow and the crossbow from a draft that would have allowed them, and passed the rest of the law; the vote of 2013 was reported the same day. In the proposal of 2026, a letter registered with the Saeima committee on 5 February 2026, the Latvian Bowhunting Association asked for the bow to be deleted from § 24 (9) i) and § 32 (3), keeping the crossbow ban. The letter was filed under bill 978/Lp14, tabled by members of parliament in June 2025 on red deer areas and night-vision devices, which says nothing about the bow. On 11 February 2026 the committee postponed the bill until it receives further information. The hunters’ association report of the same day says the committee did not support the amendments in that wording and that solutions are being sought in a working group; its reports on the March and April meetings do not mention the bow. The hunters’ association itself would accept the bow only with mandatory training, a qualification test, registration, technical parameters, named species and seasons. As of the date below the law is unchanged.

Before you go

This page describes the Latvian texts as they stood on the date below. If you are offered a bowhunt in a fenced ground in Latvia, ask the host for the provision that allows it and for the State Forest Service’s position in writing; we found neither. If you hear that the bow has been allowed, ask for the amending law in Latvijas Vēstnesis and check that point i) of § 24 (9) no longer names it. The final check is yours.