Tourism has become an important industry in the last century Increased travelling and recreation have a significant impact on the natural environment. According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2019), the CO 2 footprint of tourism increased by 40% between 2009 and 2013. Tourism has been figuratively compared to a fire – if you can use it, it...

Soil erosion causes the loss of 25–40 billion tonnes of soil worldwide every year It is estimated that three square kilometres of soil are destroyed every day in Europe [1]. Due to urbanisation and road construction, an area of around 200,000 square kilometres in Europe, or the size of the United Kingdom, has lost its function permanently. The global economic damage from deforestation and land...

Heritage meadows have been created as a result of nature-friendly management Coastal meadow is a grassland on the sea shore that is more or less affected by saline seawater. Coastal meadows are located in flat, turfed coastal areas. As animals have historically been grazed there, they are therefore also called coastal pastures or coastal grasslands. Coastal meadows are mainly located in Western...

In Estonia, mires currently cover about 6% and peatlands (former mires) cover about another 16% of the land area Types of mires: Minerotrophic fen is the first stage of mire development. In a minerotrophic fen, the peat layer is thin and the plants get their nutrients from groundwater. Minerotrophic fen vegetation is generally species-rich and lush, as the plants reach the groundwater. Today, most...

In Estonia, nature conservation is organised by several agencies of the Ministry of the Environment The Ministry of the Climate is responsible for organising environmental and nature conservation, performing tasks related to land and spatial databases, organising the use, protection, reproduction, and accounting of natural resources, ensuring radiation protection, performing tasks related to...

The data collected in the framework of national environmental monitoring is reliable and of high quality Estonia has three levels of environmental monitoring: state, local government, and voluntary monitoring. The performance of environmental monitoring is regulated by the Environmental Monitoring Act. The state environmental monitoring is divided into 12 sub-programmes, which provide a...

What is the Estonian nature conservation development plan? The nature conservation development plan until 2020 was adopted in 2012 and it defined the most important development directions in the fields related to nature conservation. The main objectives of the development plan are to promote nature education, to preserve the diversity of nature, and to preserve the functioning of the ecological...

The biggest problem in the Baltic Sea is anthropogenic eutrophication, or enrichment with nutrients The Baltic Sea is one of the seas most influenced by human activity in the world. The Baltic Sea basin (the area from where water flows into the sea), four times the size of the sea itself, is home to more than 85 million people. Therefore, the pollution load on the sea is quite high. Given the...

EU Member States must work to ensure that all bodies of surface water are at least in good condition The pollution of surface water bodies with hazardous substances in Estonia occurs primarily in connection with pollution from oil shale production in Ida-Viru County since the 1930s. However, a more significant pollution load from agriculture (manure, fertilisers, pesticide residues) arose during...