Logging in Estonia during the bird nesting period has caused colossal damage to nature this year. According to estimates based on inspections by the Environmental Department, at least 120,000 unfeathered chicks died as a result of logging during this year's nesting period.
From April 15 to June 30, the Environmental Department checked compliance with the silence regime on 2,667 forest plots with logging permits. Active logging activities were recorded on 152 of them, which is 5.7% of the cases. If this proportion is applied to all permits issued in Estonia, it can be assumed that during the nesting period, logging was taking place on more than a thousand plots at any given moment.
Analysis of the recorded logging cases showed that 48.7% of them occurred in forests with high bird populations, while 51.3% were in stands with medium or low populations.
On average, six nests per hectare were destroyed in areas with high bird density, while three were destroyed in other areas. It is estimated that each destroyed nest contained five chicks that were not yet able to fly or eggs. Based on this data, it can be concluded that at least 120,000 chicks died during logging activities in the nesting period.
"Every logging during the nesting period means the destruction of a specific brood. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of lives that have already begun to develop but have not yet fledged," said Kaarel Vühandu, head of the Estonian Ornithological Society.
According to ornithologists, these results confirm that the current legislation on the silence regime and its enforcement methods do not provide real protection for nesting birds in forests. Despite the unethical nature of logging during the nesting period and the Environmental Department's inspections, a significant portion of logging occurs precisely when irreparable harm is done to nature. According to surveys, 93% of the residents of Estonia support the cessation of logging during the nesting period.
The Estonian Ornithological Society calls on the government and the Ministry of Climate to establish a mandatory silence regime in all managed forests from April 15 to July 15 and in protected natural areas from March 15 to August 31.
"The cost of violating the silence regime is not an abstract concept. It is an annual loss of tens of thousands of lives that could be prevented by a single political decision," emphasized Kaarel Vühandu, head of the Estonian Ornithological Society.
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