European Union has repeatedly emphasized the importance of forests as an integral ecosystem providing habitats to a vast variety of species - for example in both EU´s forest strategy and biodiversity strategy. Recital (35) to the legislative proposal on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) states that: “Payments should continue to be granted to forest holders who provide environmental or climate friendly forest conservation services by undertaking commitments to enhance biodiversity, preserve high-value forest ecosystems, improve their mitigation and adaptation potential, and reinforce the protective value of forests with respect to soil erosion, to maintenance of water resources and to natural hazards.”

Therefore biodiversity decline in the forest is an important issue that member states` national rural development programs have to take into account. We, the undersigned would like to stress three things about forest biodiversity conservation in our countries rural development programs that need to be taken into account.

1. The measures planned to enhance the productivity and economic value of the forests have to be balanced by measures of forest biodiversity conservation. If the measures to support regeneration, thinning, drainage etc. are financed then adequate measures to support forest biodiversity have to be implemented as well.
2. The most vulnerable part of forest biodiversity is mainly threatened by different forest management activities and because of that the main conservation methods of forest species and ecosystems should be based on non-intervention management. Therefore maintenance of biodiversity structure (e.g. leaving a larger amount of dead wood and retention trees to the felling area after logging than enacted in the forest regulations, not managing parts of forests with high conservation value etc.) have to be supported by the national rural development programs.
3. In the past century, intensive draining has degraded a large proportion of ecosystems and forest road construction has caused serious fragmentation of the forest landscape. Therefore the construction of new roads and drainage systems must not be supported by the national rural development programs in order to avoid further negative impact to the environment.

Estonian Fund for Nature, Chairman of the Board, Silvia Lotman

Pasaules Dabas Fonds, Chief Executive Officer, Janis Rositiz

Lithuanian Fund for Nature, Executive Director, Edmundas Greimas

On Friday noon, 7. September a patient White-tailed eagle 10-0034 will  be released in Emajõe-Suursoo nature reserve, Tartu county.

The members of Estonian Rescue Board found the eagle swimming in the sea, close to Aegna Island. The bird was not able to get out of the water nor fly, as-well the local eagle pair where attacking him. On the first examination there was noticed that the bird is lethargic, the feathers where all soaked and the bird was thin but no physical injuries where found. Bloodwork showed significant abnormalities in the levels of red and white blood cells. For several weeks the eagle has been in treatment in the Estonian University of Life Science's Animal Clinic where Estonian Fund for Nature's veterinarian Dr. Madis Leivits (on the picture) has taken care of the bird. Besides medical treatments what the eagle recieved from the vet, he was taken out to flight trained on a daily basis, so he is currently flying well. There is only left to band the bird, mount the tracking device by Eagle Club and release the bird, so the eagle can proceed with his life in nature.

The white-tailed eagle is our largest bird of prey, with a wing span of 200-245 cm and a body mass of up to 6 kg. White-tailed eagle is relatively rare and therefore they are selected to the I category protected species and all of the individual animals are important for the functioning of nature. Currently there is about 150 nesting pairs present in Estonia but the population size has not been like this always. Being the top predator in the food chain, environmental contaminants accumulate in their body's. That leaded to a decrease in the numbers what culminated during the 1960s, when no successful nestings were reported for several years. Therefore the white-tailed eagle is a important indicator species for the health of our nature and environment.

More information:

Your donation will help support our work with patients like this White-Tailed Eagle… and with all of the other wild animals in need.

Today at the 10th anniversary of the Baltic Sea Festival Seminar in Stockholm , Sweden, WWF presented its latest report 'Counter Currents' outlining different scenarios for the use of the Baltic Sea towards 2030. The report is the final result of a year-long consultation process involving stakeholders from the whole region. The report concludes that there is still time to save the Baltic Sea if the right decisions are made today.

The report, "Counter Currents", presents a range of possible futures for the Baltic Sea leading up to the year 2030. The exploration of the future is told in four story lines, provocatively entitled Clear Waters Ahead, Dangerous Currents, Islands in the Stream, and Shipwrecked. In each scenario, WWF presents a different combination of possible developments, and what sort of impacts those combinations of forces might have on the health of the Baltic Sea and the populations and businesses it supports.

The report outlines and explains in detail how decisions that are made today may impact what will happen in 20 years' time. Important conclusions are that the range of possible futures is immense and that with the right decisions now, there is still time to restore the health of the sea.

"Scenarios can help us understand possible futures, which is what this report aims to do", says Pauli Merriman, WWF Baltic Ecoregion Programme Director. "By describing what is possible tomorrow, we believe we can better prepare ourselves for potential actions and responses today."

"We hope that this report will spark an ongoing dialogue and serve as a catalyst for future collaboration, commitment and action to work in partnership to create the Baltic we wish to have, today, tomorrow and in 20 years", says Håkan Wirtén, WWF Sweden Secretary General and Chairman of the WWF Baltic Ecoregion Programme. "Ultimately, the best way to predict the future is to invent it."

The report is the result of a process that was launched in 2011 and that has involved a broad spectrum of stakeholders from both the public and private sectors. A two-day workshop held in March 2012 involved some 50 persons representing a wide range of countries, sectors and institutions from all around the Baltic Sea. The process has been led by Kairos Future and was made possible by financial support from Trygg-Hansa/RSA.

"By engaging with and using scenarios, we can understand possible futures, creating in our mind's eye images of what could happen depending on the course the future takes. The future of the Baltic Sea and all of us who are dependent on it concerns us all", says John Tanzer, WWF Global Marine Programme Director. "We believe that this report will inform and improve those decisions today that will impact the future for many years to come."

The report "Counter Currents" can be downloaded from www.panda.org/baltic_future_scenarios

For more information, please contact:

Ivar Tamm, Estonian Fund for Nature, +372 583 40 638, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Marie von Zeipel, Senior Press Officer, WWF Sweden, +46 8 -624 74 03, +46 70 629 10 77, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Håkan Wirtén, Secretary General, WWF Sweden, +46 8-624 74 02, + 46 70 565 45 15, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

John Tanzer, Director, WWF Global Marine Programme, +41 79 127 95 74, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Pauli Merriman, Programme Director, WWF Baltic Ecoregion Programme, +46 767 886 185, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Note to editors:

The report

"Counter Currents: Scenarios for the Baltic Sea towards 2030" was launched today at the Baltic Sea Seminar. The seminar is an annual event during the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm, this year celebrating its 10th anniversary. The full report can be downloaded from http://www.panda.org/baltic_future_scenarios.

The Baltic Sea Festival

The Baltic Sea Festival is an international classical music festival - which gathers some of the world's foremost conductors, ensembles and exciting soloists every year. The festival started ten years ago on the initiative of the General Manager of Berwald Concert Hall Michael Tydén and conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Valery Gergiev. This year's festival will take place between August 24 – September 1. For further information: www.balticseafestival.com

Storklet Lenny has now been  a bit over 2 weeks in the clinic for treatment and I'm able to give you some deductions.
First, the cutting fracture has not healed well. I can’t point my finger at an exact cause but it seems that the cut has been too deep into the soft tissue around the broken bone (cartilage) so it may have damaged some important vessels and the remaining blood-vessels don't provide sufficient perfusion to the injured distal part of the fractured beak. Also, the beak is soft and bendy (not like an adult beak) so the stability has been a issue.

The second thing is that his siblings are getting ready to fly. We have talked about it and we are sure that under these circumstances it is not possible to put the storklet back into the nest. Our current plan is to proceed with the treatments of the bird and give some peaceful time for the beak to heal.

When the beak has healed the storklet needs to learn and go trough some nature survival skills, eg. needs to catch live fish from artificial pond (all my patients go through some species specific survival skill testing before releasing them back to wild)