The State Forest Management Centre drew up state forest introduction plans for local governments 09.12

“These descriptions summarise which state forests grow on a local government’s territory, what types of forest management, nature conservation and forest restoration has been carried out in the past decade and what types of things could and should be carried out in the next decade,” summarised Andres Sepp, Chief Forester at the State Forest Management Centre.

The descriptions also describe the hiking trails, campsites and other recreational infrastructure and cultural heritage objects located in the local government’s state forest. Areas of high public interest are also included, where the State Forest Management Centre brings in local communities when planning forest operations.

RMK has prepared these types of plans for 76 local governments, all of whom have lands on their territory managed by RMK. Three local governments (Maardu, Sillamäe and Rakvere) have zero state forests.

Sepp said that the State Forest Management Centre decided to organise these descriptions in order to have an overview of what has been accomplished in state forests in the past decade and to describe their current state and estimate the future.

“The primary objective of these descriptions is to explain to each local government what kind of state forest is growing on their territory and thus show that the current management of state forests is sustainable and there is no need to fear that forests are going to disappear,” said Sepp. “We are determined to inform the public that besides regeneration cuttings, there is so much more being carried out to grow young forests, develop forest recreation, wildlife conservation and forest improvements.”

In introducing the plans, the State Forest Management Centre hopes to receive feedback from local governments on areas of high public interest in state forests. Sepp acknowledges that most local governments have informed RMK about their most important forests, the ones their local communities use every day, but after elections and new council gatherings there may be some additional thoughts about designating some state forests as high public interest areas.

Each local government will receive their own plan as an online brochure and the descriptions will also be available on the RMK website, where anyone can examine the area they are interested in.

The State Forest Management Centre’s foresters would like to visit the representative of each local government, including the councils, to further present and discuss these plans. Negotiations in regard to these meetings are currently underway.

The State Forest Management Centre has not prepared this type of plan for local governments before. RMK drew up forest district plans ten years ago, which also served as an example for the current plans, but the new plans do not have as much specialist terminology, are slightly shorter and stated in simpler terms and hopefully are easier to understand as a result.

The State Forest Management Centre’s full introduction of state forests is available here.

Further information:
Andres Sepp
Chief Forester at the State Forest Management Centre
andres.sepp@rmk.ee
+372 505 5932