ESTONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 2009

Management plans
Currently there are management plans for 27 protected
areas and for organizing protection for seminatural communities
of approximately 200 limited-conservation
areas. Management plans have been established for 14
nature reserves, 8 protected landscapes and 5 limitedconservation
areas, making up only 7% of all protected
areas in Estonia. As the areas covered by the management
plans are primarily on land, the plans can be considered
to cover only 14% of protected land area. That means
86% of protected land and almost all protected sea area
is not under management plans. The protection of areas
in green network corridors is also not under management
plans.
There are 25 action plans for conservation of species,
which set forth protection measures for a total of 40
protected species (15 of them in protection category I,
23 in category II and 2 in category III). There are a total
of 570 protected species. Management plans have been
prepared for 23% of the species in protection category I
(a total of 64 species), 9% of category II species (a total
of 262 species) and less than 1% of category III species (a
total of 244 species). This means that management plans
establish protection for only 7% of protected species.
Restoring and maintaining habitats
Placing habitats under protection is not sufficient
to ensure their existence. It is only a foundation for
organizing further protection. Consistent management
is necessary for existence of species richness of some
habitats, including semi-natural communities. In the
last 8 years, the amount of semi-natural communities
that have been restored through state coordination with
the nature conservation subsidies is slightly lower than
the amount maintained on average annually. The area of
the semi-natural communities maintained is about onequarter
of the total area of semi-natural communities. On
average, only about 3% of the total area of semi-natural
communities is restored per year.
The Estonian rural development plan for 2007–2013
stipulates that by 2013, the area of semi-natural biotic
communities that receive maintenance support from
the state must be 35,000 hectares and the number of
recipients of assistance should be 1,500. Currently slightly
over 40% of the targets have been achieved in the first
case and slightly over half in the second case. Thus the
maintenance support for semi-natural biotic communities
should be expanded in the next four years by about
20,000 hectares and the number of beneficiaries should
grow by 750.
limited-conservation area 19%
protected landscape 6%
national park 36%
nature reserve 39%
Figure 8.15. Distribution of areas covered by management plans by type of protected area, as of 31.12.2008.
Data: Ministry of the Environment, EEIC.
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