Winter cave trips endanger wintering bats Bats spend almost half a year hibernating, thus avoiding the harshness of the winter. For the winter, bats hide in underground spaces – in Estonia, they favour basements, mines, caves, old military tunnels and shelters. The main criterion for the choice of wintering grounds is the temperature, which must not fall below zero; high humidity is also a plus...

Welcome to the introduction page of the nature observations database! We invite everyone to enter their nature observations (the first springtime common hepatica, the roe deer you saw, the nightingale you heard, etc.) in the nature observations database. This database has been created for all nature lovers who want to keep a so-called nature observations diary and share their observations with...

What are nature observations campaigns? Although you can enter data into the nature observations database all year round, at the exact time you are actually in the wild, and observe the species that interest you most, there are sometimes targeted campaigns as well. Campaigns are designed to draw attention to a specific species or group of species, or to a region. For example, sometimes researchers...

A new Atlas of the Estonian mammals is being prepared, which will provide an up-to-date overview of the distribution of all wild mammal species in Estonia WATCH the actively updated MAP STORY of the mammal atlas HERE. More than 20 years have passed since the previous compilation and collection of a comprehensive mammal distribution data set. Major changes in land use (suburbanisation, changes in...

A species protection site is a protected area established for the protection of the habitats and sites of protected species A species protection site is an area located outside of a protected area or in the limited management zone of a protected area, which is delimited according to the Nature Conservation Act and can be used in accordance with special requirements, and which is: the reproduction...

A protected species is a taxonomic unit of an animal, plant, or fungal species whose specimens, habitats, or places of finding are protected under the Nature Conservation Act or are listed in Annexes A to D of EU Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97. A protected fossil or mineral is a fossil or mineral included in a protected category, the specimens or deposits of which are protected on the basis of...

At the local government level, a protected natural object may be a landscape, valuable agricultural land, valuable natural community, a single element of the landscape, a park, a green area, or a single element of landscaping that is not protected as an individual protected natural object or located in a protected area. Only the limited management zone regime applies to an area protected by the...

An individual protected natural object is a living or non-living natural object of scientific, aesthetic, or historical-cultural value, such as a tree, spring, erratic boulder, waterfall, rapids, cliff, terrace, outcrop, cave, karst site, or a group of them, which is protected under the Nature Conservation Act Upon the entry into force of a decision on the protection of an individual protected...

The function of the biodiversity information network is performed by the Loodusveeb portal The national contact point/person of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the Ministry of the Environment/Liina Vaher, whose task is to coordinate the implementation of the CBD and the policy for the protection and use of biological diversity. The national contact point of the biodiversity...

Estonia has submitted five general reports on compliance with the requirements of the convention Article 26 of the Convention on Biological Diversity requires the acceded countries to report to the secretariat of the convention on the achievement of the objectives set out in the convention, as well as to describe what has been done and its effectiveness. Estonia has submitted five general reports...