Minister approves five-year state forest regeneration plan
Minister of the Environment Rain Epler (EKRE) has approved a regeneration cutting volume of 56,381 hectares, to be rolled out to state forest managers for the next five-year period.
The cutting area is determined on the basis of the calculation area, taking into account the age structure and maturity criteria of the forest blocks, spokespeople for the ministry said.
According to the new regulation from the minister of the environment, the total area of regeneration felling allocated to state forest managers for the next five years is similar to that determined last year, while the area of forests managed by the state forest management company RMK in 2021-2025 is the same as in the previous period - 55,530 hectares.
The total area of regeneration cutting is to fall at the expense of the Järvselja study and experimental forest district under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Research, totalling 17 hectares.
"The small change in the distribution of fellings is due to the combined effect of several changes, such as the updating of forest inventory data and the addition of new land. In addition, changes have been made in the conservation status of forest land and new valuable habitats have been discovered," Epler via in a press release.
Compared with the previous period, the area of pine cutting on the entire state forest land is to fall by 113.5 hectares, that of aspen by 125.5 hectares, and that of spruce by 27.5 hectares. The cutting area concerning birch trees is to conversely increase by 200 hectares, and that of other tree species by almost 50 hectares, divided up over a five-year period.
Based on the forest management guidelines, the area of regeneration cutting in a state forest starting from a forest management object of 1,000 hectares is calculated, according to the calculation area. In this way, long-term, even forest use can be planned better, taking into account the age distribution of forest units.
In addition to the recent regulation, the previous minister of the environment Rene Kokk gave a recommendation to the RMK that its annual felling would not exceed the actual average annual felling volume of the last six years, until the completion of the new forestry development plan.
According to the expert assessment of the Environmental Agency (Keskkonnaagentuur), approximately 11.3 million cubic meters of wood was cut in Estonia last year, of which nearly 4.5 million cubic meters was RMK stock and some 6.8 million cubic meters came from the share of private forests.
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Editor: Roberta Vaino