In Estonia’s wetlands – in mires – peat is being cut. Until 2005 it was planned in capacity that surpassed five times the natural growth of peat. There are numerous drained bogs, where not only nature has lost but also a human expecting the profit – the forest growth has not increased, peat cutting has not started, but water regime and habitats of bog species have been damaged.

The aim of the project “Estonian Mires Inventory completion for maintaining biodiversity” was to complete the inventory of all mires in Estonia and, on the basis of the inventory results, to develop recommendations (including reference to restrictions required) concerning potential use of these wetlands. There has been an inevitable necessity to complete such an inventory – without this it is not possible to objectively assess the conservation status of those habitats, nor to estimate the sufficiency and circumstances of sites currently included in the Natura 2000 network. This data is also of value for other countries in the boreal biogeographic region, especially at the designation of mires of international importance and responsibility habitats for Estonia.

This project was built upon the results and experience of the project “Estonian Wetlands Conservation and Management Strategy”, implemented using co-financing of the World Bank Norwegian Trust Fund in 1997. During the wetland inventory in 1997, 1,560 wetlands were studied using the same methodology as in the present project. The results from that project allowed to make several proposals to protect wetlands with high conservation value which was especially important in implementation of the EU Habitats Directive in Estonia.

In the course of the current project 13,901 areas were studied of which 8,676 were determined as mires and 933 sites including mires as marginal habitats. This means that for the first time we have the total overview about all areas in Estonia covered by mire vegetation, and their conservation value. The findings also specify our knowledge regarding coverage of Estonian territory by mires. Until now 22.3% or 1,009,101 ha have been defined as peatlands and often this figure has been transferred to mires.

According to the present inventory the surface of mires is 233,000 ha or 5.2% of Estonia’s territory. Unfortunately, the inventory once again brings us to a conclusion that the total surface of Estonian mires has decreased by nearly 2.8 times as compared to data from the 1950s.
The mission of the Estonian Fund for Nature is to preserve the rich natural diversity in Estonia and the world. The inventory made it possible to work in this direction and we appreciate the continuous support by Norway which supported the activities through EEA and Norway Grants. Our gratitude also belongs to the Estonian Environmental Investment Centre (SA Keskkonnainvesteeringute Keskus) and private funder Ahti Heinla for their financial support to the project. We also thank the Estonian Environmental Board for its contribution. Two-yearproject has been hard for the executive team of the project, the 152 experts and assistants who carried out the field works.