estonian agriculture, rural economy and food industry

11.
Different landscape types have
been preserved in Estonia
As about one-half of the Estonian territory is forests, nearly a quarter is covered by bogs, there are
many lakes and watercourses and arable land forms a third of the territory, a number of different
landscape types have formed as a result. A relatively late switch to intensive land use and the prevalence
of manual labour in agriculture until the last quarter of the previous century have contributed
to their preservation. Although extensive land improvement was carried out during the Soviet period
and attempts were made to drain marshes and bogs, large areas of wetlands, wetland woods,
meadows covered with scattered trees, and other landscape types have still survived. This is why one
can find landscape types in Estonia that no longer exist in other European countries.
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