In celebrating Estonia’s nature conservation efforts 100th anniversary, the Ministry of Environment made some investigative summaries of our natural resources. The discoveries showcased Estonia among the forefront of natural heritage along with other Northern European countries.
Lilika Käis, Ministry of Environment nature preservation department main specialist, said that “The uniqueness of our natural environment as well as the diversity in our fauna is attributed to our geographical position.” Estonia in naturally a multiple border country: placed between a continental and a marine climate we have a temperate climate while across the whole of Estonia is a border between the limestone and poorer sandstone rocks. In addition we are located at the southern border of the coniferous forest zone.
“That is why Estonia has such diversity in natural conditions — we have the presence of conifer as well as broad-leaved forest and other natural sites such as coastal cliffs, dunes, sand- and stone beaches. Thanks to that positioning many species live only within these limits - for example a third of our vascular plants,” said Käis.
The dimensions and the presence of boulders in Estonia puts us in the forefront of the North-European glacier formation – an astonishing 90% of the gigantic boulders are located here.
The presence of meteor craters by area density ranks as number one in the world with 8 craters in: Ilumetsa, Kaali, Kärdla, Lasnamäe, Neugrund, Simuna, Tsõõrikmäe ja Vaidasoo.
Different bog communities cover nearly one-tenth of Estonia, and in terms of protected bogs, we are also at the forefront of the world - about half of the bog communities are under protection. "Intensive agriculture in densely populated Europe has destroyed nearly all the wetlands, and conservationists are involved in the restoration," said Went.
Particulary species-rich are Estonian meadow communities. For example, it has been counted that the Western-Estonian wooded meadow Laelatu has 76 different vascular plants in one square meter and that makes Laelatu special in the whole world. "If we take an example of Western and Southern Europe’s meadows that have impoverished flora then our semi-natural meadows give the opportunity to admire the plants that are destroyed or have become rare in Europe," said Käis.
Over half of Estonia is covered by natural forest and for that measure we are ranked 4th in Europe. Lahemaa has over 72 500 ha of natural forest and is one the largest preserves of its’ kind.
Estonia has more coastal meadows, alvars and wooded meadows than any other European country, and also one of the biggest floodplains – 4000 ha large Kasari floodplain.
Estonia protects 18% of its mainland and almost 1/5 of its’ aquatic terrain. “For example, we are ranked 5th in the EU by having a Natural network that covers 16.7% of Estonia, “said Käis.
There are over 26 000 known species in Estonia, but in reality that number may reach as far as 40 000. Over half of the species found in Estonia are invertebrates that inhabit forest. Species that are considered rare in Europe are wolves, bears and lynxes, but their populations are doing well in Estonia according to Käis.
Estonia is also a paradise for migrating birds – we are located on the East-Atlantic migration route of many species of waterfowl and in every spring and fall millions of birds pass through here. Our coastal waters are the most important stop for many birds between nesting and wintering areas. For example, approximately half of Greater Scaup stop in Estonian waters on their spring migration, as well as thousands of Long-tailed Ducks, Divers, Geese and Common Cranes.
Latvia and Lithuania have sea without islands, Finland and Sweden have generally high rock islands. Estonia has predominantly shallow marine islands and islets, there are more than 1,500 of them. Those are unique bird islands in the whole Baltic Sea and therefore Estonia is an internationally valued bird watching destination.
Limestone, which is mainly in the upper layers of rock, has been selected as our national rock because of the powerful shapes created where the cliff face erodes.
North-Estonian clint is part of the Baltic clint layer and the highest and most notable section covers about 300 km of the Baltic clint. This rock allows us to track the history of the Earth from about 80 million years ago. We can find waterfalls and cascades from the North-Estonian limestone and limestone is also associated with such landscapes as karst, secret rivers, caves and craters which are widespread in Estonian limestone area.
Translation by ENT, original article from media channel postimees.ee
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