Last week, the government decided to support Minister of Climate Yoko Alender's (Reform) proposal to increase compensation for private forest owners whose land includes strict conservation areas. As a result, starting next year, support for privately-owned forests in Natura 2000's strict protection zones – those under the highest level of protection – will rise from €134 to €160 per hectare.

"The compensation is meager. /.../ If we only get an additional few dozen euros per hectare – it's a poor effort," said Jaanus Aun.

In the spring, when private forest owners held a demonstration at Toompea, the Ministry of Climate's Deputy Secretary General Antti Tooming stated that the ministry's vision was to raise the support to €200 per hectare. Now, Tooming explained that the lower increase is a result of a compromise between ministries.

"The initial goal was higher, at €200 per hectare. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, we were able to agree on €160, which is still a 20 percent increase. This is fair in the sense that if we look at timber market prices over the past three years, this matches the amount of income lost by owners due to restrictions. This is a significant step forward, and ideally, we want to continue raising this support in the future. But for now, this compromise is something we are quite satisfied with," Tooming said.

The Estonian University of Life Sciences recently developed a methodology for calculating the lost income of private forest owners due to strict protection restrictions. Allar Padari, a specialist from the university, said on the show that based on average prices for 2023, the method estimated the lost income to be €197 per hectare, which is roughly the same amount Tooming mentioned in the spring.

"It seems that the agreed-upon sum [in the government] does not compensate for the amount we calculated. As the Ministry of Climate said in the spring, €200 would have been quite reasonable,"

Aun: If the state is strapped for cash, land swaps could be used instead

According to Jaanus Aun, it is completely unclear why the state, in a situation where it's known that austerity measures mean there is no money, does not offer land swaps to private forest owners. This approach has been used for land acquisition in projects like Rail Baltica and the Nursipalu military training area.

Antti Tooming explained that land swaps have been abandoned due to the high risk of corruption. "Finding a piece of land that matches what the owner has is quite complicated. The entire system must be airtight to avoid any risk of corruption or violations. We see significant risks here, and this is one of the main reasons we have not done it yet," Tooming said.

However, Jaanus Aun disagrees.

"In certain cases, it's definitely possible to provide replacement land. I don't understand what corruption risk is being referred to. There have been no reports of corruption incidents in the practices of the Land Board or the Center for Defense Investments (which manage land acquisitions for Rail Baltica and Nursipalu). This is incomprehensible. There seems to be an unfounded fear stemming from events in the past when the legal framework was different. Now, there is a special law that regulates land swaps, and it's impossible, for example, to give commercial land in Tallinn in exchange for a forest plot in Võru County. That's not even on the table. We are talking about giving state forest land from the same region in exchange," Aun stated.

"We understand that the state has limited funds, which is why we have proposed substitute forests – the state has commercial forests it could offer, but for some reason, there is no willingness to do this," he added.

Aun also noted that in addition to the compensation increase being too small, the ministry has not yet addressed private forest owners' request that strict conservation areas, where all economic activity is banned, be fully compensated to the owners.

"In the spring, we discussed with the Ministry of Climate that if we gradually raise the compensation amount each year, for example to €200 per hectare, that's only part of the total package. When a private forest is placed under protection and the owner is economically deprived of that forest, the first step should be to pay out the value of the standing forest to the owner immediately. And as the forest grows back, continue with annual payments. We must move toward a system where, when a forest is placed under protection, the owner is fully compensated for it," Aun said.

Tooming pointed out that the state currently uses three broad methods of compensation: direct support for private forests where lost income from Natura 2000 areas is compensated, the state purchasing private land with conservation restrictions (about €10 million per year is allocated for this) and various tax incentives.

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