Since the beginning of re-sovereignity of the Estonian Republic the role of the forestry sector in Estonian economy has been notable. The companies of the sector gave 4.7% of Estonian GNP, employed 19 000 workers, the export of timber and wooden products formed 9.3% of the total Estonian export in year 2006 (MKUK 2007). The past few years have not been prosperous for the Estonian timber industry: the main problem in the previous years has been the deficiency of raw material; today the main trouble is in decreased demand and difficulties in sales of wooden products.

Estonian forests are important preservers of biodiversity. Forests serve as a habitat for around 20 000 different species. Over 30% of endangered and rare species habitats are forestry-related (Lilleleht 1998). 8.2% of the Estonian forest land is under strict protection (MKUK 2008), but there are estimates that this figure reaches around 10% (Viilma & Öövel 2009). The process of forming Natura 2000 protection areas is technically over, but there are still deficiencies in preserving representative area of valuable forests in all site types.

According to estimates in 2009, additional 40 000 hectares of forest land ought to be taken under protection, primarily on most fertile site types (Viilma & Öövel 2009). In addition to the environmental and natural values Estonian forests also encompass priceless culture and religion-related values. These are primarily connected to old burial grounds and mores (e.g. crosstrees) and sacred places (ancient groves).

Overview of Estonian forestry 2005-2008

The most positive change is that illegal logging is no longer a central problem in Estonian forestry sector. The main problems are now related to constant changes of the felling parameters and to the unclear procedure how to decide the fate of 15% of forest land still not having a clear ownership status. In the period of 2005-2008 the Forest Act has been modified twice, both times aiming to increase the felling opportunity.

The felling volumes in Estonia have stayed around 7 million cubic meters per year during last 3 year period. In the beginning of the century the annual felling volumes in coniferous forests have been higher than the officially set optimum due to the high demand of coniferous round wood. In the past 8 years the felling volumes in coniferous forests are coming closer to the set optimum. However, when calculating the figure of optimal use, it was never taken into account that a relatively big part of Estonian forest land will stay out of use for the next decade and some of the forest land has been moved out of use due to the establishment of new protected areas. The felling pressure in the coniferous forest is expected to increase because of the collapse of the Russian round wood import.

The unrecorded economy in the forestry sector is still prompt by the unprofitable tax structure for the private forest owners, but in the same time the Tax and Customs Board has intensified their actions in the forestry sector and they are confident in their capability to control the tax fraud in the forestry sector.

Last year's major change in Estonian forestry was the reforming of the State Forest Management Centre, which was induced by the deficiencies detected by the State's Audit Centre. The reform resulted in the depletion of the State's forests management units by 4 times. It is still too early to judge the results of this reform. An important milestone has been the approval of the national FSC forest management standard draft. The national PEFC scheme has also gained international recognition. The natural values in Estonian forest are still not sufficiently protected - only about 3% of Estonian forests possess high conservational value and a mere third of them are located on protected areas. To improve the representativity of different site types in the strictly protected forest areas, another 40 000 hectares of most productive forest land must be taken under strict protection.

Today's protection scheme of the woodland key habitats in private forests does not guarantee their preservation, considerable area of these forests have been already destroyed. The second study about Estonian corporate timber procurement policies and practices showed that there have not been many changes. However, there are more companies that have compiled referred policies. It turned out that the acquiring of internationally recognised certificates has forced the companies to pay more attention to the origin of procured timber and to the environmental impact of its actions. It was a common practice to demand for the copy of the forest notification or the number of the cadastral unit to be indicated on the sales documents although the claim to indicate the number of the forest notification continuously on the sales documents was put into practice in the Forest Act made effective not before 2009. Still the problem of incomplete databases remains - the companies have no access to the data according to which they could control to which cadastral units the forest notification has been issued and under which forest notifications timber has already been sold.