Approximately 97 percent of the forest within Haanja National Park is estimated to be privately owned.

Previously, clear-cutting up to one hectare was permitted there, but according to the procedure that changed this spring, a forest owner must now order a complex and expensive environmental impact assessment to conduct such felling or change the type of cutting, which also increases forest management costs. As a result, forest owner Margo Kukk is puzzled, as he cannot clear-cut a parcel of less than a hectare in his bark beetle-damaged forest near Rõuge.

"The Environmental Board wants an environmental impact assessment and, for some reason, they want me to pay for it myself, even though I don't see the need for it," Kukk said.

ERR spoke with Leelo Kukk, deputy director general of the Environmental Board, to clarify the new situation regarding the management of protected forests.

"The reason is a Supreme Court decision and an ongoing infringement procedure by the European Commission, which has criticized us for issuing forest notifications too easily in protected areas and stated that we should consider them more thoroughly. We have been doing this since March and we informed beforehand that the practice would change. Therefore, forest owners submitted significantly more notifications to us than usual, and our workload has been greater compared to previous years, resulting in longer processing times," said the environmental official.

According to Aarne Volkov, a consultant at the Võru County Forest Association, most forest owners in Haanja have managed their forests sustainably, but now they feel betrayed by the new restrictions.

"If the Environmental Board and the state explain to people and us consultants that the reason is the impending fine for over-harvesting Natura areas, then the forest owner who has preserved the forest feels unjustly punished. Why not punish those who cut down the forest instead of those who have maintained it?" Volkov wondered.

Previously, forest properties in the restricted zone were slightly cheaper compared to commercial forests, but now the value of forest properties in the protected zone has further decreased, Volkov added.

"This year, I have organized five sales of protected area properties, and there has been zero interest; no one wants to buy them for any amount of money. It seems that companies have decided they will no longer buy forests in protected areas because there is too much uncertainty in managing them."

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