BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

Baltic Sea region to warm sharply in 21st century

By Alister Doyle   

OSLO (Reuters) - The Baltic Sea region is likely to warm faster than the world average this century because of climate change, disrupting fisheries and extending crop growing seasons, a report said on Wednesday.
    The study, by 80 scientists from Baltic nations including Russia and Germany, said temperatures were already rising more quickly than the global average, cutting the number of days when parts of the sea are clogged by winter ice.
    "A warming of the mean annual temperature in the order of 3 to 5 Celsius (5.4 to 9.0 Fahrenheit) is projected for the total basin during this century," according to the report adopted by governments around the sea in the Helsinki Commission.
    A U.N. climate panel projected last month a "best estimate" that world temperatures will rise by a lower 1.8 to 4.0 Celsius (3.2 to 7.8 F) this century because of a global warming widely blamed on human activities led by burning fossil fuels.
    Wednesday's report said that warming might disrupt life in the almost land-locked Baltic Sea, where species such as herring and sprat are already struggling from pollution, a legacy of the former Soviet Union to the east.
    Warmer temperatures might also bring more rains that could decrease the average saltiness of the sea, upsetting marine life adapted to brackish conditions.
    Scientists say that northern areas may be warming faster than the world average because darker ground and water, once exposed, soak up more heat than reflective ice and snow.
    The Helsinki Commission, representing nine Baltic Sea states and the European Union, seeks to work out ways to fight pollution in the region.
    But warming could also extend growing seasons in the Baltic region, where 85 million people live in an area from St. Petersburg in Russia to Copenhagen in Denmark.

New oil slick spotted off Estonia

TALLINN  - A major oil slick, which could contain some 40 tonnes of fuel, has been detected off the coast of Estonia, one week after a cargo vessel sank in the Baltic Sea.

"We have detected a kilometre-long oil slick 4.6 kilometres (2.8 miles) off the Parispea peninsula", on Estonia's northern coast, the border guard said in a statemen.

"Although the pollution is 42 kilometres away from the place where the Runner 4 freighter sank, we have reason to believe the oil slick originates from that vessel," border guard spokeswoman Helena Loorents said Monday.

A lifeboat, two rescue rafts and an emergency buoy from the Runner 4 -- a Dominican Republic-flagged cargo vessel which sank after a collision with another vessel in the frozen Gulf of Finland -- have been recovered near the oil slick.

"An underwater video showed a large crack in the middle part of the ship which proves the story that the contents of one of its fuel tanks has risen to the surface of the sea," Toomas Liidja, a senior inspector with the Environmental Inspectorate, told the Postimees daily.

Up to 40 tonnes of heavy fuel oil may have spilled into the sea, he said.

....

New Baltic Sea Action plan relies on Ecosystem approach

* The nine countries bordering the Baltic Sea and the European Union have agreed on a common vision of a healthy Baltic and a set of strategic goals and ecological objectives that lead to achieving that vision. The plan is based on a proactive ecosystem approach instead of being driven by reactions to pollution events.

At the 27th annual meeting of the Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, held March 8 and 9 in Helsinki, member states and the Commission officially approved the first core elements of what they termed an "ambitious but realistic action plan" to restore the Baltic Sea marine environment.

“With this ecosystem approach, protection of the marine environment is no longer seen as an event-driven pollution reduction approach to be taken sector-by-sector," said HELCOM Executive Secretary Anne Christine Brusendorff.

"Instead, the starting point is a common understanding and definition of a sea with a good ecological balance, which is deciding the further needs for reductions of pollution loads as well as the level and extent of human activities," she said. "This approach paves the best way to ensure a holistic and integrated policy approach.”

HELCOM works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution through intergovernmental cooperation between the countries bordering the sea - Denmark, Estonia, the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

Last year, the Helsinki Commission decided to develop a Baltic Sea Action Plan to ensure that all possible measures are taken to reduce pollution in the Baltic Sea and to repair the damage done to the marine environment. HELCOM expects to finalize and adopt the Plan late in 2007.

In developing the Baltic Sea Action Plan, the Commission and member states will identify and detail the kind of actions needed to curb eutrophication, prevent pollution involving hazardous substances, and improve safety of navigation and accident response capacity, as well as halting habitat destruction and the decline in biodiversity.

HELCOM approved the establishment of an ad hoc Task Force for the development of the Baltic Sea Action Plan.

The Task Force will consist of representatives nominated by the HELCOM member states, representatives of NGOs and from the private sector.

One of the main objectives of the ad hoc Task Force will be to ensure political commitment to the development of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan, linking the scientific work and the political processes.

At a stakeholders conference held on Tuesday in .....

Flying squirrel population becoming increasingly dispersed

About 143,000 females live in small spots of forest.

An estimated 143,000 female flying squirrels live in Finnish forests. According to a survey published by the Ministry of the Environment on Thursday, the population is dispersed into small enclaves in different parts of the country.
      The most viable habitats are in the coastal areas near Vaasa in West Finland, and in the southwest. The population is fairly sparse in North Karelia, Kainuu, and North Ostrobothnia.
      
The survey is the first study aiming at a comprehensive analysis of the number of flying squirrels in all of Finland. According to the study by Dr. Ilpo K. Hanski, the population has declined significantly since the 1940s, and continues to do so.
      "All surveys suggest that the population was many times greater 50 - 60 years ago. The number of flying squirrels now is small by comparison", Hanski says.
      "No areas have been found where the population would have remained stable, or grown."
      Modern forestry methods, which have encroached on the habitat of the small mammals, are the greatest cause for their decline. The flying squirrels thrive in old-growth mixed forests with an abundance of spruce, where the elusive creatures can build nests inconspicuously.
      Forests of that type have been felled since the 1960s, and it will be decades before the areas will be suitable for flying squirrels again.
      Hanski says that the only way to reverse the situation is to change forestry methods, and to make sure that there are enough appropriate trees with good holes for nesting.
      
The reduction in the number of flying squirrels and the splintering of their habitat are seen as serious reminders of the state of Finnish forest nature, says Tapani Veistola of the Finnish League for Nature Conservation.
      Taking a different view, the .......

Estonia oil slick could kill up to 35,000 birds

By David Mardiste

TALLINN - A thick oil slick off the shore of northwest Estonia could kill as many as 35,000 birds, far more than previously feared, as freezing seas hamper rescue and recovery efforts, bird experts said on Monday.

Around 3,000 dead birds have been recovered so far, said Vilju Lilleleht, a senior member of the Estonian Ornithological Society. He added studies showed only about 10 percent of avian casualties from oil slicks were ever found.

"The real number of deaths could be as high as 35,000," Lilleleht said.

The spill of about 20 tonnes of oil, reported last Saturday, was initially expected to have only a limited impact but ornithologists said many birds were .......

Oil slick kills thousands of Baltic birds

TALLINN - An unexplained oil spill in northwestern Estonia has already killed an estimated 5,000 birds, and scientists expect this number to grow over the next few days.

On Jan. 30, approximately 1,000 oil-covered birds were detected on the shoreline of Vormsi Island, and another 1,000 on Osmussaar Island, ornithologist Tiit Randla told the Baltic News Service. Randla, who is head of the Osmussaar landscape protection area, explained that it’s practically impossible to save birds whose feathers have been tainted with oil.

“When a bird’s feathers are covered in oil it stops feeding and quietly fades away,” he said. “In theory, a bird can be saved only if single feathers are oiled. We hope birds with few oil-covered feathers will lose them while moulting.”

Birds of many species ranging from mute swans to various ducks, grebes and gulls have suffered. The damage was greatest to long-tailed ducks.

Finland’s STT agency reported that oil-covered birds were also discovered in southwestern Finland.

Mikael Kilpi found a dozen birds with oiled feathers near Hanko on the southwestern coast. The birds may have encountered the oil while at sea before flying in the direction of mainland Finland, Kilpi said, as no pollution was detected near Hanko.

On Jan. 28, an oil slick was discovered on the coast of Estonia’s northern Harjumaa region and another off the coast of the western Laanemaa region. The toxins came in from the open sea, although the origin of the spill remains to be found.

Over the next few days, oil slicks were .....

Estonia halts expansion of ‘expensive’ windmills

TALLINN - Wind power has fallen out of Estonia’s favor in recent months, with the Economy Ministry deciding to limit support to wind-power producers and Parliament adopting amendments to the energy law that will give preference to other forms of renewable energy.

Einari Kisel, head of the Ministry of Economy and Communications’ energy department, puts it bluntly: “We do not want to have too many wind mills,” he says. “The price of wind energy is expensive. The unstable production causes additional costs to other producers.”

On the other side is Hannu Lamp, managing director of Tuulepargid, which developed the Pakri wind park, Estonia’s largest. He finds the recent decision short-sighted and discriminating.

“So far we had no limitations. It took us five years for preparations and the state is turning its back now,“ says Lamp.

“There is a good opportunity to gain additional financing through the Kyoto joint implementation scheme from countries with high level of CO2 emissions. These funds last only until 2012. We would not be able to utilize this financing to reduce the cost of green power if the state sets limits on production,” says Lamp.

With its long coastline, Estonia has a comparative advantage for generating wind power and can do it at a favorable cost compared to many European countries, argues Lamp. The average payoff period of a windmill investment depends on the site wind conditions, wind power purchase tariff, the cost of capital and share of “carbon” financing. Still, the average return on investment is 10 years, and Kyoto funds could help cover up to 10 percent of expenses.

Currently Tuulepargid has contracts with the governments of the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark, which are .........

EU cracks down on environmental protection

TALLINN – The EU announced that all of Estonia’s seal breeding grounds would be taken under protection, as stipulated by the EU’s natural habitats directive and the Estonian Nature Protection Act, the daily Eesti Paevaleht reported.

Under the Nature Protection Act, at least half of the country’s registered breeding and molting grounds must be protected. “The aim of taking these areas under protection is to ensure peace from disturbance by humans to grey seals during the breeding period and to ringed seals during the molting period,” Riinu Rannap from the Environment Ministry’s nature protection department told the paper.

These protection plans, however, have caused opposition among fishermen, as seals tend to break their nets and traps

Experts fear for Europe's plants

*A list of the 800 most important sites for wild plants in central and Eastern Europe has been published by the charity, Plantlife International.

Many of the sites contain endangered species and yet a fifth have no legal protection, the group warns.

Agriculture, forestry and tourism are the main threats to "Europe's last areas of wilderness", its report says.

If they cannot be saved "we risk a spiritual impoverishment such as no generation has known before", it adds.

Hundreds of specialists from academic institutions and non-governmental organisations identified the best sites for wild plants, fungi and their habitats in seven countries.

They were Belarus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The report also looked at .........

Still Dancing with Wolves

*When Estonians voted on 14 September 2003 on whether to join the EU, some of them had a good reason to remember one of the biggest final obstacles that the European Commission put in the country’s path to the EU. The referendum came  on the eve of the moose-hunting season. If the EU had had its way, there would have had no moose shot starting from 2004. Nor would there have been any hunting of bears, wolves, lynx, and beavers.

In the end, in the very final phases of negotiations, Estonia won concessions. Under license, all four species can still be killed each year, though there will be new rules for bear hunting.

To Estonians, it is something of a mystery why the EU stuck so long to its (metaphorical) guns. In 1995 two other countries with a Baltic shoreline--Sweden and Finland--joined the EU and managed to win exceptions. Sweden retained the right to hunt bears, while Finns were allowed to hunt bears and also lynx. Sometimes the right was hard-won. Andres Lillemae of the Estonian Hunters Society says that attacks by bears killed one man and left two men in wheelchairs before the EU granted an exception. “The more bears there are, the more they may have contact with people,” he says.

Perhaps it was the relative richness of wild animals in Estonia that made it difficult for EU functionaries to understand the Estonian position. According to Peep Mannil, an official at the Environment Ministry, Estonia has 450-550 brown bears, 600-800 lynx, and 100-150 wolves. This effectively makes Estonia the European modern-day homeland of the brown bear and the lynx. It also has the second-largest ratio of wolves to hunters in the Baltic, behind Latvia. The Baltics and the Carpathians are the only regions in Europe where the wolf is not a complete rarity. All three animals are more frequently sighted in Estonia than in either Finland and Sweden.

Other figures indicate that Estonia has a relatively large number of moose, and wild boar--already common and a popular target for hunters in winter--are becoming more numerous. Increasing production of food crops has encouraged their expansion.

Estonian hunters argue that, without proper control, the populations could grow out of control. They believe that they have shown themselves capable of managing these big, prized animals. With some exceptions, their populations have remained stable.

But what particularly concerned them was the explosion in the relatively humble beaver. Hunted to extinction about a century ago, the beaver was re-introduced to Estonian lakes and rivers in the 1950s. They have bred relatively fast. There are now 16,000 of them, enough--so local press reports have claimed--to destroy thousands of hectares of forest. Only in Latvia is the beaver more common.

“There are so many beavers that they are fighting each other for living space,” says the Hunting Society. “Many of the beavers that are caught have bite marks.” The beaver is an animal with no natural enemies. Culling is therefore all the more important, hunters argue.

Under EU regulations, 25 to 30 wolves can be shot annually, Mannil says. Around 20-30 bears can be killed a year, while the lynx cull will remain at 100 a year. Environmentalists are planning to reserve a few lakes for beavers and direct hunting to areas where the beavers are damaging property and costing money.

The victory has some strings attached. If the number of lynx falls over the next five years, the European Council will pass a qualified majority vote to end Estonia’s exception.

HUNTING AS A WAY OF LIFE

But obscured by these tussles is a broader change in hunting--by northern European standards, Estonia may be a relatively small hunting nation, but hunting is a way of life for a small, 1 percent minority. There is good reason: 51 percent of the country is forested and the forests teem with wildlife.

But the number of hunters has dropped by a quarter over the past two years, to 15,000. As a percentage of the population, hunters are three and a half times less common in Estonia than Denmark and Sweden, and six times rarer than in Finland.

An overall drop in Estonia’s population, and  a decline in interest among the young may be factors. So too might money. Hunting the biggest and wildest game can be a relatively expensive past-time. In the mid-1990s, fewer Estonians were able to afford it.

In the mid-1990s, the decline was good for the wolf population, which soared to over 700 in 1994. A massive cull followed, with about 350 being gunned down in 1995.

If fewer and fewer Estonians continue to hunt, could we see a similar swing in the population? If so, hunters from Denmark and Germany--countries with far more hunters but fewer prey--are, it seems, interested in bagging a prize or two. They can already get licenses to shoot in Estonia.