The first-tier Tallinn Administrative Court canceled the preliminary legal protection requested by the NGO, Meie Nursipalu, meaning that permits to go on with felling activity in the area around the Nursipalu training ground, in Võru County, can go ahead.

The felling and logging is being conducted ahead of the expansion, which will see the Nursipalu ground triple in size from its current area of around 3,000 hectares.

The court did not find the application of preliminary legal protection justified, saying that prospects of success on the part of the plaintiff are "slim."

The main argument the NGO, ie. the plaintiff, presented was that conditions for carrying out logging works as stipulated in the government's order of October 20, 2023 have not been met.

The NGO argued that felling should not go ahead prior to a related EU nature protection network Natura 2000 assessment, which would provide data on noise pollution.

However, the court failed to find either in the evidence and case materials presented or from current law that the execution of timber works planned for the initial phase of the training area expansion would clearly be premature or unauthorized, rendering not compelling the argument that the contested timber permits could be illegal.

The court therefore found that, regardless of how urgent the logging operations are deemed to be, there is in any case no justifiable need to indefinitely postpone granting the related permits.

The court noted that felling allowed within the scope of the contested permits remains in compliance with the stated government order, including the environmental review and the preliminary Natura assessment findings.

The court noted that since experts had not identified a significant environmental impact from the planned timber activity, the public interest in ensuring Estonia's national security must outweigh "significantly" the plaintiffs' interest in postponing the activity, until conclusions from all required impact assessments and studies for the training area expansion have been made clear.

The order to annul the preliminary legal protection becomes effective immediately upon notification, meaning it is already valid.

It can be appealed at the second-tier Tallinn Circuit Court, within 15 days.

The proceedings are, however, concerning the main complaint, namely the demand for the annulment of the felling permits themselves.

The court has taken the plaintiff into proceedings and has provided the parties with a deadline of May 9, by which they must present their positions.

The further course of the proceedings will become clearer after this stage.

The county court had temporarily applied for preliminary legal protection with a ruling dated March 19 this year.

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