The Peat Group of the Estonian Geological Survey made an inventory of Estonian peat resources between 1971 and 1987, taking into account all peat-covered areas of more than 1 ha. The peat resources of all peatlands with industrial resources on more than 10 ha (1,598 peatlands) were surveyed thoroughly (Orru et al., 1992). The results concerning part of the peatlands – 539 of them – were published (Orru, 1995), but the main fraction of the data by administrative districts can be found in the Reports of Peat Resources (in manuscripts). These reports also give certain information about the plant cover and the community types in the mires that were examined. As the survey differs by administrative districts, the data between them are not well comparable and are partly outdated. Therefore, the map compiled as the result of the study cannot be taken as the map of recent Estonian peatlands. It would be more exact to call this the map of Estonian peat deposit types. During a five-year period (1992–1996), the Peat Group of the Estonian Geological Survey made an inventory of the residual peat resources of the Estonian peat fields under exploitation. The manuscripts contain valuable data about the state of several peatlands. In 1972, a report was made to the Ministry of Nature Conservation and Forestry by E. Kask about the conservation needs of Estonian wetlands. In this manuscript, data concerning more than 100 mires are presented, and their typology is discussed. In 1973, a report about cranberry resources in Estonian mires was made by specialists from the Nigula Nature Reserve. Productive cranberry sites on about 25,750 ha are documented in tables and maps. Information about the distribution of forest drainage systems is found in maps and tables compiled by the Estonian Forestry Survey in 1976. Rather comprehensive data about the distribution pattern of peat soils are recorded in the Estonian soil maps (1:10 000). The state of Estonian peatlands is assessed in the report “Complementary list of peatlands for their protection” compiled by M. Ilomets in 1993. In the enclosed map, mire complexes still untouched and those affected by drainage are presented. M. Ilomets and Ü. Kasemetsa have in 1997 also issued a report concerning the state of peatlands with industrial peat resources: “Ecological Inventarisation of Estonian Peatlands. I. Database formation. Peatlands with industrial peat resources”. This report provides data about the state of 539 peatlands, based on the comprehensive analyses of existing data (mostly manuscripts) collected by different institutions during the preceding 40 years. The Estonian Wetlands Conservation and Management Strategy project was carried out with the financial support of the World Bank Norwegian Trust Fund in 1997. Between June and November 1997, 1,376 different wetlands were visited and described. This inventory did not include most of the protected mires and concentrated only on larger mires. All districts were covered more or less equally; the main gaps (compared with the areas planned) were situated in SW Estonia. Together with earlier data, the publication of the project (Paal et al., 1998) includes data concerning 1,560 wetlands (mires, floodplain meadows, coastal pastures, peatland forests). Conclusions of the inventory include certain proposals of addition of wetlands with high conservation value to the protected areas network. Since 1997, a lot of those proposals have been realized by the Government of Estonia, largely in the course of implementation of the EU Habitats Directive in Estonia. On the basis of the results of the project, a preliminary list of mires with low conservation value was compiled. This list, later discussed and developed together with the Environment Management Department of the Estonian Ministry of the Environment, was thought to serve as a source of potential new peat fields, to avoid extraction of bogs with high conservation value. However, the Ministry did not find enough juridical founding to establish it as a ministerial regulation (a new version of Earth’s Crust Act was not adopted yet) and it worked only on recommendation level.
ESTONIAN MIRES: INVENTORY OF HABITATS
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