Forests for People

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people who loved nature. Today, Estonia is a party to several

conventions and has applied the requirements of different direc-

tives to protect its natural resources. However, this land, which

is hardly recognizable on the map of the world, is home to 1.3

million people. In order to cope in our climate, people need warm

houses; in order to heat the houses, it is necessary to use natural

resources. Each of us has an impact on the environment – the

question is how big this impact will be. Nature conservation is

the balancing force between our desires and the possibilities the

environment can offer; it has the function of ensuring that our

common resources are used economically and will be preserved

for generations to come.

Estonians have been dependent on wood for centuries. Pine and

spruce have been always the most used tree species, valued for their

strength and durability in our climate.

Forest-based industry has a lengthy history in Estonia. Along with

the other Baltic provinces, Estonia was in the vanguard of indus-

trialization when the process began in the Russian Empire in the

19th century. Estonia’s forest industry was privatized in the early

1990s, but private sawmills could not pay competitive prices for

logs and the majority were exported. The total output

of the country’s sawmills in 1993 was just 157,000 m

This situation changed within a few years as modern

sawmills were built which could take logs from export-

ers. Forestry companies themselves also invested their

earnings in the construction of new mills.

The structure of Estonia’s forest-based industry

consists of all of the main branches of the forest indus-

try, but the pulp and paper industry is relatively small.

Estonia has one old sulphate pulp and unbleached

paper mill and one new, modern chemical/thermal/

mechanical aspen pulp mill, Estonian Cell. The

strongest sector of the Estonian industry is sawmill-

ing, whose practitioners currently own or work in

close cooperation with a variety of planer mills, finger-

jointed component plants, glued/laminated beam

factories, joinery factories, wood impregnation plants

and more.

Hand-carved round log houses have been in favour

for centuries, mainly as farm houses. You can still find

log buildings over 300 years old that are well preserved

and in use. Developments in further processing

(joinery, glued/laminated beams and other engineered

wood products) will make wood more competitive in

the building sector on the domestic and export markets.

The production and export of prefabricated houses in

Estonia has also been consistently increasing.

The number of consumable products from forests has

increased with the development of skills and way of life.

The most important sources of forest by-products in

the 20th century were herding, haymaking, mushroom

gathering, berry picking and resin extraction. Until the

occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union, the right to

hunt was vested in the landowners. In the Soviet period,

game was public property and hunting was organized

by state, which was the owner of all land property. After

Estonia regained independence, the right to hunt was

returned to landowners (with severe restrictions) and

game were declared ownerless.

Local residents have been engaged in hunting for

thousands of years. In the Early Stone Age, the main

prey in what is now Estonia were elk and beaver.

During the Middle Stone Age wild boar and deer were

added and in later years, bear, ox, badger, marten and

otter. Estonia’s game population nowadays is viable

and has yielded internationally recognized shooting

trophies (particularly lynx skins and skulls). This has

boosted the popularity of hunting tourism over the

last 20 years.

In Estonia, the public has rights to all forests.

People are allowed to explore our natural and cultural

landscapes by foot, boat and bicycle, on skis or on

horseback. On privately owned land, the same rights

apply from sunrise until sunset. Landowners may not

prohibit people’s movement and open lands, roads

and waterways, as well as ice and shore paths, to the

public. This places people at the heart of Estonia’s

quest to maintain its forestry tradition for a sustain-

able future.

Estonian forests provide habitat for bears and other wild animals

Image: Min. Env. Estonia