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.

At the same time, there are roughly 8000 bogs in Estonia which condition has not been assessed – we do not know if and to what extent are their associations and species valuable with regard to nature conservation. Also, we are not aware of the characteristics that shape the local environment of those wetlands – wetland as a reservoir of clean water, maintainer of the local water regime and climate moulder.

Project  „Estonian Mires Inventory completion for maintaining biodiversity"