Nature protection

The departments responsible for nature and biodiversity protection in the institutions of the Ministry of Climate administrative area work closely together, having rationally distributed their tasks between the institutions. The tasks of the Environment Agency are to collect, process, analyse and publish Estonian nature and nature protection data, fulfilling national and international reporting obligations and maintaining nature protection databases.

The Estonian Environment Agency collects and manages information regarding nature protection in the Estonian Nature Information System (EELIS), the website of which is www.eelis.ee. EELIS is used for keeping track of existing as well as planned natural features, alien species, subsidised areas, hunting areas, hunting trophies and the related legal acts and documents. 

We also maintain and develop the nature observations application (LVA). Nature observations data transmitted through the application are used for better organisation of nature protection, studying the distribution of species, control of alien species, support for national monitoring of wildlife and much more.

The Environment Agency is one of the biggest collectors and analysts of wildlife monitoring data. We collect monitoring data every year in order to keep track of the organisation of protection and the state of wildlife, in addition to fulfilling international obligations. Monitoring data and reports are collected in the Environmental Monitoring Information System KESE, where they are available to anyone who may be interested.

The preservation of objects, species and habitats under nature protection is based on the collected nature and nature protection data. The data can be used in preparation of sectoral overviews and analyses as well as in fulfilling international obligations.

Additionally, we coordinate and manage the Biodiversity Clearing-House (BTV) web page loodusveeb.ee as required by the Convention on Biological Diversity and we serve as the national focal point of the clearing-house. By serving as the reference centre of information on biodiversity and nature conservation for the European Environment Agency, we regularly forward data on official protected objects to the European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET) to be used by EU’s statistical office EUROSTAT as well as the United Nations Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), an organisation maintaining the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). We also forward information to OECD and participate in OECD’s working party on biodiversity, water and ecosystems (WPBWE).