Fishing is an ancient practice: the diverse fish fauna of the world’s waters has been a valuable source of food for humans for thousands of years There are over 30,000 species of fish in the world. There are 91 fish species registered in Estonian waters, most of which are freshwater fish, semi-migratory fish (e.g. vimba, ide), or migratory fish (salmon, brown trout, eel). There are about 30...

Forests cover more than half (51%) of Estonian land There are alvar forests, boreal heath forests, dry boreal forests, fresh boreal forests, dry boreo-nemoral forests, fresh boreo-nemoral forests, floodplain forests, paludified forests, peatland forests, drained peatland forests, and juniper shrublands in Estonia. The forest is one of the greatest treasures in Estonia, both naturally and...

Sustainable forestry helps to maintain or increase carbon stocks in the long run Forests generally store 20–100 times more carbon per area unit than, for example, arable land and therefore play an important role in regulating the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere. The role of forests in mitigating climate change is important – the forest produces oxygen from carbon dioxide during...

Preservation of forest biodiversity, i.e. the ability to function and provide benefits even in the face of unexpected changes, requires historical continuity and ensuring spatial coherence Approximately 20,000 species of plants, animals, and fungi live in Estonian forests [1]. Our most abundant species group is insects (estimated at about 10,000), and we have 2,000 to 2,500 species of fungi and up...

Human well-being requires not only material values, but also health and a clean and pleasant living environment The forest offers people a number of benefits, some of which (such as the amount of wood or the amount of mushrooms, berries, and medicinal plants harvested) are easily measurable. However, the value of the forest as a recreational place is difficult to measure in money. Human well-being...

Timber is one of the oldest materials that humans learned to use For ancient Estonians, timber was the main material for both construction and the manufacture of goods. The oldest written records of Estonian forestry history date back to 1795, about forest management in Sõrve, but forestry as an industry emerged at the end of the eighteenth century. The first forest districts in Livonia for...

Today, in addition to providing economic benefits, the forest is also seen as a carrier of cultural function Estonians have been tied to the forest throughout our history and it also forms a part of our culture. According to the classical theory of the origin of the Finno-Ugric peoples, the ancestors of Estonians have also spent millennia moving from the forest zone of the Urals to the Baltic...