Forests cover more than half (51%) of Estonian land There are alvar forests, boreal heath forests, dry boreal forests, fresh boreal forests, dry boreo-nemoral forests, fresh boreo-nemoral forests, floodplain forests, paludified forests, peatland forests, drained peatland forests, and juniper shrublands in Estonia. The forest is one of the greatest treasures in Estonia, both naturally and...

Forests cover about half of Estonia's area According to the 2022 statistical forest inventory, there are 2,325,020 hectares of forest land in Estonia, i.e. 51.3% of the entire territory of Estonia [1]. According to the Estonian Topographic Database, in 2022, there were 2,353,567 hectares of forest land in Estonia, i.e. 51.9% of the Estonian territory. In other words, forests cover about half of...

Moderate felling increases the diversity of open field community species in the short term In the case of clearcutting, a large part of the tree layer is removed and a clearcut area is formed. A clearcut area is a temporary habitat with very different living conditions (such as microclimate and the moisture and nutrient regime of soil) than in the forest. Changes in living conditions are...

An ecological community is a set of relatively similar species in similar ecological conditions There are different sets of suitable species for different ecological conditions. The greater diversity of communities means that there are more species in the landscape.

Preservation of forest biodiversity, i.e. the ability to function and provide benefits even in the face of unexpected changes, requires historical continuity and ensuring spatial coherence Approximately 20,000 species of plants, animals, and fungi live in Estonian forests [1]. Our most abundant species group is insects (estimated at about 10,000), and we have 2,000 to 2,500 species of fungi and up...

The natural values of meadows, or heritage communities, can only be preserved by human intervention Heritage meadows, also called semi-natural communities or heritage communities, are grasslands that have traditionally been used as pastures or hayfields. The biota of the heritage meadows is natural – the heritage meadows have not been ploughed, fertilised, and no seeds of cultivated plants have...

Estonia has had favourable conditions for the development of mires, and a great diversity of mires has developed here Mires are ecosystems where some of the organic matter created by living organisms at the expense of solar energy does not decompose and is deposited as peat, and the vegetation cover has no contact with mineral soils due to the peat. If a layer of peat has already formed in...