ESTONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 2009

Table 8.2 Abundance and trends for top-predators specified in the Environmental Strategy.
Data: National Environmental Monitoring Programme, Eagle Club.
Category Baseline level in 2004,
number of pairs
Status, number of
pairs in 2008
Trend
Black stork 100–115 80 decline
White-tailed eagle 140 165 rise
Osprey 45 55 rise
Golden eagle 45 55 rise
Greater spotted eagle 20–30 20 decline
Lesser spotted eagle 500–600 550 stable
Threatened species
According to the list of species in the Estonian Red
Book, the level of threat of only about 4300 species
indigenous to Estonia (16%) has been assessed. As a result
of the last assessment, there are 1296 threatened species
in Estonia (about 30% of the species assessed) D . A total
of 295 species (7% of all species assessed and around 1%
of all species found in Estonia) are considered extinct or
nearly extinct in Estonia.
Based on the above it can be concluded that biological
diversity in Estonia has been little-studied, especially
in the case of groups with greater numbers of species
and ones that are more difficult to investigate such as
invertebrates, fungi and algae (figure 8.2).
Of the species assessed, the abundance trend is known
in the case of only one-quarter of them – 1004 species.
For 34 of these, the abundance trend is rising. The abundance
trend for about one-half (498) of the species has
been assessed stable and 418 species evince a declining
trend (figure 8.3).
On the basis of the Red List, the total number of
threatened species in the period 1978–2008 rose from
245 to around 1300 (figure 8.4). This does not necessarily
mean that the threat for species has grown, as it is
100
possible that many of the threatened species as early as
80
in 1978 were simply not assessed back then. Thus it can
only be conjectured that the actual threat has risen the
most for vascular plants, as the likely extent to which
they were assessed was the same already in 1978. On the
other hand, the rise in the number of threatened species
among mosses, fungi and lichens may point to a more
comprehensive level of study and fuller assessment, which
does not however mean that these groups of species are
in any less danger. The abovementioned groups make up
87% of the total number of threatened species. The apparent
decrease in the number of threatened invertebrate
species in comparison between 1998 and 2008 is due to
the change in assessment methods, as a result of which
a great number of the species assessed as threatened in
1998 were assessed as poorly studied in 2008.
Only one-quarter of almost 100 species with pan-
European importance and protection value can be assessed
as having favourable species protection status and slightly
over one-quarter of other species require more study
before they can receive any sort of assessment. Nearly
one-half of the species has poor or insufficient status; i.e.
the conservation of vital populations E of these species in
Estonia is not guaranteed (figure 8.5).
60
40
20
16
%
0
100
100
100
100
97
74
65
25
19
1
fish
amphibians
and reptiles
birds
mammals
vascular plants
mosses
lichens
algae
fungi
invertebrates
Figure 8.2. The graph shows, by each group of species, how great a share of the known species has had their threat level assessed. The red
line is showing total share. Data: Estonian red list 2008.
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D
Threatened species – in the given case, the following categories in the Estonian Red List: Near Threatened – NT, Vulnerable – VU, Endangered – EN, Critically endangered – CR or Regionally
Extinct – RE. The categories derive from the IUCN Red List manual at: http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/redlists/RLcats2001booklet.html
E
Population – group of organisms (individuals) of the same species which inhabit a common territory.
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