Estonia's Environmental Inspectorate to focus on recreational fishers this year

Photo: Kristjan Teedema

The focus of attention of the Estonian Environmental Inspectorate this year will be on businesses polluting the air, loggers damaging forest roads, and the country's 300,000 or so recreational fishers, Postimees said.

According to statistics the situation in environmental protection in Estonia has improved significantly in recent years. The number of violations recorded by the inspectorate peaked at 8,256 ten years ago, in 2003, and has been on a stable decline since. The 2,604 violations recorded in 2012 were a couple of hundred more than in 2011, however.

Last year the biggest numbers of violations were recorded in the domain of the Waste Act, the Water Act and the Ambient Air Act, meaning mostly violations related to the disposal of waste, air pollution and illegal harvesting of fish, which seems to be on an upward trend. During 2012, 1,552 cases of violation of fish protection rules were recorded, 132 more than in 2011. "The number of violations is big because the number of fishers is big, close to 300,000," said Peeter Volkov, director general of the Environmental Inspectorate.

The inspectorate meted out fines worth almost 190,000 euros during the year. If as recently as in 2000 environmental damage sustained in Estonia during a year was estimated to total 7.5 million euros then last year the size of damage was a few hundred thousand euros. The figures suggest that last year the damage sustained was only about double the size of fines, whereas in the sphere of environmental protection 10,000 euros more was collected in fines than was the estimated size of damage.

The minister of environment, Keit Pentus-Rosimannus, described it as positive that the inspectorate has managed to keep the number of violations stable. For instance, illegal logging which used to be a major problem in the early 2000s is under control now. The minister also named as positive putting an end to the ignoring of fishing regulations.

In control over fishing environmental inspectors and the police are working together, said Volkov. The main things that have to be dealt with are fishing during the spawning season and amateur fishers selling their catch, which are forbidden under law.

Air pollution remains a major issue, especially in places such as the northeastern oil shale region and the Muuga port near Tallinn. "At Muuga all terminals have operating permits, but if they all worked at the same time it would be impossible to live there," Volkov said.