Farmers and forest owners want nature restoration plan proceedings halted
Farmers' and forest owners' associations sent a joint appeal to Energy and Environment Minister Andres Sutt, proposing to halt the nature restoration plan and form new expert groups that include landowners.
The appeal was signed by the Estonian Private Forest Union, the Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce, the Estonian Farmers' Federation and the Land Reclamation Society.
In the joint statement, the organizations stress that the Ministry of Climate must comply with the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, which obliges member states to ensure that national restoration plans are developed in an open, transparent, inclusive and effective manner. According to the organizations, the current process does not meet these requirements.
"In Estonia, land has an owner, which means restoration activities can only be carried out on someone's property. That makes landowners the most important stakeholders and their representatives must be given the opportunity to participate at every level of work and decision-making. The current approach involves landowners only retrospectively and superficially," said Kristel Järve, executive director of the Private Forest Union.
"The agricultural sector has operated at a loss of hundreds of millions of euros over the past three years, while expectations continue to grow around climate targets, animal welfare and food security. Every new obligation places additional financial pressure on producers and this is not sustainable given the shrinking budget. That's precisely why we cannot allow the nature restoration plan to be drafted without input from landowners," said Kerli Ats, chair of the board of the Chamber of Agriculture and Commerce.
One of the key concerns raised in the appeal is the composition of the expert groups. For example, the expert group on terrestrial habitats and species includes no practitioners. The organizations emphasize that involving landowners alongside officials and scientists is essential to ensure that planned restoration actions are actually feasible.
They also point to a lack of transparency in the process: the names of the expert group members were published and the relevant directive was signed retroactively only after the appeal was submitted, even though the expert groups had already convened.
The organizations warn that unless the current stakeholder engagement process is changed, the resulting restoration plan will likely be open to legal challenge. Estonia must submit its national nature restoration plan to the European Commission by September 1.
--
Editor: Marcus Turovski
