Estonian forestry lobby challenges the country's bird non-disturbance policy

Legislators and magnates have to await a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice

There’s a legal battle brewing in Estonia currently and it involves nesting birds and forestry companies. The reason behind it is the forestry lobby’s attempt to challenge the country’s bird non-disturbance policy, which stipulates that between 15 April and 30 June, no logging operations can be undertaken in public forests.

The logging ban period also applies to private forests, however, there it is applied on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the Environment Authority inspectors. If they find nests on specific trees, then these trees cannot be cut down during that period. It is precisely the action of this institution in the private forests that the lobby has challenged in court.

EU’s Birds Directive in the way

The situation is even more layered because Estonia’s Climate Ministry was actually considering amending the country’s Nature Protection Act in order to extend the non-disturbance period for nesting birds until 15 July in order to bring it more in line with the EU’s Birds Directive.

On the other hand, the forestry magnates argue that Estonia is actually the only European country to apply such a non-disturbance policy. According to Postimees, that’s not entirely true as similar, even if more limited restrictions are applied by other countries around the Baltic Sea.

The Estonian Supreme Court is currently waiting for a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice in the matter of whether and/or under what conditions, destruction of nests and killing of chicks is allowed during nesting season.

The EU’s Birds Directive prohibits deliberate killing and disturbance of nesting birds, wherever they are found. This means that even if the non-disturbance period were to be extended with another two weeks that would still put some birds in danger because certain species have longer nesting periods.