2020 was a special year for both establishments – in addition to the state of emergency declared due to the spread of the coronavirus, both had to prepare for their eventual merger. Additionally, many services increased in volume. For some employees, this meant dealing with a lot of added pressure, said Riho Kuppart, Director of the Environmental Board.
“Saving our environment is becoming increasingly more important for people,” said the Minister of the Environment Tõnis Mölder. “Luckily, we find that most people and companies act responsibly towards it. At the same time, last year was a very work-intensive and extraordinary year,” he added.
“The state of emergency urged a lot of people to visit nature and move to live in their countryside homes. Naturally, they wanted to have something to do. People wanting to work around their countryside homes contacted us for approval, however the increased amount of people spending time among nature meant having to perform stricter checkups, to make sure that they act responsibly,” explained Riho Kuppart, Director of the Environmental Board. The amount of approvals, permissions and queries made in connection with natural resource management was up 20% compared to 2019.
Environmental supervision inspections were up 14% and misdemeanour proceedings up 18%.
We continued to suggest ways of spending time in nature throughout the entire state of emergency. “We worked with the Land Board to create an overview of conservation restrictions on top of the nature conservation map applications, so that people would be better informed of any potential conservation laws when out and about in nature,” said Riho Kuppart.
The Environmental Board’s Director was happy to see a rise of activity in civil society. “Our environment belongs to all of us, everyone feels connected to it, and many wish to discuss topics concerning it. This is reflected in the number of contested decisions. If in 2019, 35 decisions were contested, then in 2020, this number rose to 65. The largest number of appeals and court cases revolved around forestry.
The state of emergency showed us how important it is to keep developing the country’s digital services. The Environmental Board’s e-services are also kept up-to-date. Starting from 2020, companies are able to submit uniform environmental permit applications and reports in the Environmental Decision Information System KOTKAS. The Forest Registry has become even more user friendly. 86% of last year’s forest notifications were submitted digitally.
Our strides in the digital world have not taken away from our fieldwork. Among other things, a lot of time and money is spent on fending off invading species. For example, we have dedicated 15 years to avert the spread of hogweed, but are only seeing the results of these years now. The Portuguese Slug is also a good example of how difficult it is to manage invading species. “We want to thank local governments and communities for their efficient cooperation. By working together, we have a chance to stop the spread of invasive species,” said the Director of the Environmental Board, Riho Kuppart.
The Environmental Inspectorate continued its usual supervision in 2020, adapting it to the state of emergency. “We also helped the police check adherence with movement restrictions. Altogether, we performed 8810 inspections during our supervision,” said Deputy General Director of the Environmental Board, Olav Avarsalu.
Most Estonians and Estonian companies are environmentally conscious and follow environmental requirements, according to Avarsalu. “Violations stemming from ignorance will be responded to by educating and guiding the offender, however violations motivated by self-interest will be punished harshly, as we cannot allow violations to become overwhelming,” he added.
Environmental criminality is becoming a wide-spread problem both in Europe and internationally. The Ministers of the Environment, Justice and Interior signed a declaration in 2020, stating that the fight against environmental crimes is a priority.
“Environmental crimes must be treated with similar severity and methods as all other financial and covert crime,” said Minister of the Environment, Tõnis Mölder, in the opening of his press conference.
The Environmental Inspectorate opened 25 criminal proceedings, 1419 misdemeanour proceedings and 430 administrative proceedings in 2020. 172 percepts were issued. 756 protocols for the confiscation of fishing gear of unknown ownership were written by inspectors. 1042 fines were issued for violations for a total sum of 423,200 euros.
“Our supervision needs to continue focusing on the waste sector and its larger problem point, such as construction and demolition waste, landfills, cross-border waste transportation and package waste. We need more information in order to solve this sector’s problems. The digital revolution will undoubtedly help us on this front,” said Olav Avarsalu.
The Director of the Environmental Board, Riho Kuppart asserted that both the digital revolution and the Green Turn will be the Board’s priorities for 2021. The Environmental Board also aims to raise awareness of the environment with the aim of preventing violations and explain the different functions of the Board through communications and environmental education.
Watch the 3 March 2021 press conference HERE.
Inspectorate statistics can be found HERE.
