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Administrative data

Name: Implementation of national climate change adaptation activities in Estonia

Reference: LIFE21-IPC-EE-LIFE-SIP-AdaptEst/101069566

Acronym: LIFE21-IPC-EE-LIFE-SIP AdaptEst

Duration: 01/01/2023-31/03/2032

Total Eligible Budget: 18,859,312 €

EU Contribution: 11,294,017 €

Contact details

Coordinating Beneficiary: The Ministry of Climate 

Address: Suur-Ameerika 1, 10122, Tallinn

Contacts: Triin Kommer (Project Manager) and Gady Künnapuu (Communications Specialist)

Background

The general objective of the "Estonian Development Plan for Climate Change Adaptation" (NAS) is to increase the readiness and capacity of the regional and local level of the state of Estonia to adapt to the effects of climate change. According to the division of prioritised sectors, the development plan has eight subgoals supported by the NAS measures, which are presented in the implementation plan together with the activities, results and costs. Adaptation measures are directed to the increase of the awareness and resilience as well as to the implementation of the principle of caution. 

Climate Change Adaptation Development Plan until 2030 sets eight subgoals based on the priority sectors of the economic and administrative structure in the Republic of Estonia (independently and partially combined) from which the implementation of five is supported by the SIP: 

  1. Health and rescue capacity with the aim to improve rescue capacity and the ability of people to protect their health and property.
  2. Land use and planning, including coastal areas, other areas with a risk of flooding, areas with a risk of landslides, land improvement, towns with the aim to mitigate and manage storm, flood and erosion risks.
  3. Natural environment, including biodiversity, land ecosystems, freshwater ecosystems and environment, marine ecosystems and environment, ecosystem services with the aim to maintain the diversity of species, and create favourable conditions to the habitats and landscapes, but also to socio-economic ecosystem.
  4. Bioeconomy, including agriculture, forestry, fishing industry, hunting, tourism, peat production with the aim to achieve sustainability in important economic sectors.
  5. Society, awareness and cooperation, including awareness, education and science, international relations and cooperation with the aim to raise the awareness and preparedness for risks from climate change.

Objective

The main objective of the project is to increase the resilience of different ecosystems in a changing climate, improve society’s readiness to adapt to climate change (through the updating of weather forecasting models and climate projections), and to ensure the socio-economic positive effects through sustainable use of resources via employing several good-practices, demonstration and piloting, and capacity building activities. 

Management of the Alam-Pedja nature conservation area as a pilot

Contacts: lead beneficiary is Estonian Environmental Board, partners who contribute to the work package are Estonian University of Life Sciences, University of Tartu, Estonian Fund of Nature, NGO Tartu Hunting Society, NGO Lynxland, Wildlife Estonia, State Forest Management Centre.

  • The aim is to reach a comprehensive plan for the best management of the protected wetland. A large amount of hay grows in the Alam-Pedja protected area, which needs mowing to maintain the area. Due to the protection of the species, hay mowing is allowed at a time when the conditions for its removal are unfavourable. Climate change brings more mild winters, where hay can be removed using only waterways.
  • The additional challenge is related to the quality and use of hay as biomass as there are currently no suitable pipelines. During the current project, the management framework of the Alam-Pedja wetland and the pipeline of biomass will be tested and piloted in collaboration with production companies.
  • The new management model reduces the negative impact on the environment by switching the transportation means, by increasing the grazing area, and maintaining the diversion of meadows.
  • Within the activity, the options for optimal utilisation of hay will be explored and a maintenance plan for semi-natural habitats will be issued as a new management plan of Alam-Pedja.

Mapping of water bodies affected by climate change and developing support measures for resilience

Contacts: lead beneficiary is Estonian Environment Agency, partners who contribute to the work package are Tallin University, Geological Survey of Estonia, The Ministry of Climate.

The objective of this work package is to ensure the good status of surface and groundwater bodies in a changing climate and to map areas and water bodies that are affected most by the changing climate (including drought and lack of water).

The project is divided into five activities:

  1. Groundwater and surface water data inventory and compilation.
  2. Mapping of problematic water bodies. The aim of this action is to map areas and water bodies that are affected most by the changing climate. For mapping, the data is collected, systematised and compared. A methodology will be developed to identify significant factors and factor weights. The possible changes in water consumption and the effects of climate change at the water body level will be assessed, taking into account the updated climate projections.
  3. Selection of pilot areas and development of models. The aim of this action is to select pilot areas and develop coupled groundwater and surface water models. The selection of pilot areas will be made from the assessment of risk areas. Among the pilot areas typical problem scenarios will be represented. For pilot areas, conceptual models are developed and monitoring is carried out.
  4. Development of measures for water management plans, Environmental Development Plan until 2030 and water
    users.
  5. Involvement of local residents in data collection. The existing application is developed in a way that local residents in the pilot areas can be involved in monitoring to raise awareness of the status of water bodies.

Compilation of National water re-use strategy

Contacts: lead beneficiary is Estonian Environmental Research Centre, partners who contribute to the work package are Tallinn University of Technology, Estonian University of Life Sciences, University of Tartu.

Objective of this work package is to identify the availability of water (wastewater, mining water, etc.) to be re-used, to screen for its potential users, and to map the available technology and its applications needed for water re-use. During the action, an assessment of CO2 binding potential in established shallow water wetlands in the former mining sites in the Sirgala-Viivikonna quarry area will be performed among with mapping the potential of wastewater re-use in agriculture and in the industries.

Ensuring healthy, adaptable, and diverse forests in a changing climate

Contacts: lead beneficiary is Estonian University of Life Sciences, partners who contribute to the work package are Estonian Private Forest Union, The Ministry of Climate.

  • The aim of the action is to ensure healthy, adaptable, and diverse forests in a changing climate with the purpose of high-quality raw materials and increased income from the valorisation of timber. In order to mitigate climate change for forest managers, material collected from best seed sources in other countries nearby (for example Baltic Sea region, Poland) are being field-tested.
  • Among other things, species that do not exist in Estonia as a forest tree, but that could enrich forest communities and be resilient to the changing climate are being tested. The tests are based on the experience of neighbouring countries. As a result of the experiments, it may be necessary to change the restrictive regulations in order to allow forest managers to increase the range of the species.
  • Also, it is important to establish demonstration areas/sites to introduce the possibilities and best practices of mixed forest management to mitigate the climate change effects on forests and demonstrate the resilience of the mixed forest stands to climate change.

Reducing the effects of anthropogenic factors in a changing climate by removing obsolete dams, restoring the spawning areas and habitats of important water bodies and restocking critically endangered fish species

Contacts: lead beneficiary is State Forest Management Centre, partners who contribute to the work package are Estonian University of Life Sciences, University of Tartu,  Wildlife Estonia.

The aim of this action is to ensure the sustainability of fish resources in a situation of eutrophication of the Baltic Sea and inland waterbodies due to the massive use of agrochemicals. The effects of anthropogenic factors to water bodies are increasing as the climate is continuously changing. Obsolete dams and agricultural melioration affect rivers ecosystems by blocking the migration of anadromous fish species, but also all riverine fish species migration between feeding-, growing-, breeding and wintering area and changing the riverbeds hydromorphology. Dams, reservoirs and melioration also increases the river water temperatures, changes and alters sediment and water flows and decreases the quality of the river habitat and ecosystem.

Many of the Estonian salmon, grayling and asp stocks became extinct or were weakened substantially during the last century due to diverse human impact on its freshwater life stage, resulting from agriculture, pollution, hydropower (damming), water extraction, habitat degradation (e.g., melioration). Protecting salmon and salmonids and asp through freshwater habitat restoration and other measures, many other endangered fish species and aquatic species such as river lamprey, freshwater mussels and other endangered large aquatic invertebrates preferring similar freshwater habitats will gain benefit too.

Development of monitoring, information, and support system

Contacts: lead beneficiary is Estonian Environment Agency, partners who contribute to the work package are University of Tartu, Information Technology Centre of the Ministry of the Environment.

The aim of this action is to create the infrastructure and opportunities for the responsible institutions to provide the public with important meteorological information to be more informed about extreme weather warnings. To this end, the in-house capacity to obtain adequate information and to introduce modern methodologies and tools (satellite data reception system, integration into the existing infrastructure) will be developed first. Under the NAP activity 1.1.1 “Development and updating of meteorological and hydrological indicators monitoring and forecasting and warning systems for the implementation of updated/modernised fire hazard map compiling tool/solution into operational work of Estonian Weather Service, the modernisation of the weather warning production system and the transition to EUMETSAT Next Generation Satellite Data - Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) and EUMETSAT Polar System Second Generation (EPS-SG) satellites are foreseen. The training of observers, synoptics, and technical personnel will follow.

This activity is also tightly connected with and is a prerequisite of the concrete awareness-raising and competence building activities by ensuring forest fire information/assessment/warnings to the Estonian society and governmental authorities

Updating climate projections

Contacts: lead beneficiary is Estonian Environment Agency, partners who contribute to the work package are University of Tartu, Information Technology Centre of the Ministry of the Environment, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonian Museum of Natural History

The objective of this work package is to update climate projections for Estonia. The current projections were published in 2015 and require updating based on new regional model calculations. Climate projections serve as input for planning adaptation measures in various sectors, such as water management, forestry, agriculture, fisheries, energy, transport, and health. As a preliminary activity, the climate database CLIDATA will be updated to ensure the availability of high-quality climate monitoring data for further analysis. The main activity involves the development of climate projections for the atmosphere and the sea. Tartu University and Tallinn University of Technology will carry out the work. In cooperation with Estonian Environment Agency, an application will be submitted to ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) to obtain additional computational resources. The output of the activity will be data based on observations and model calculations on past, present, and future climate, as well as reports (atmosphere and sea) explaining the scientific background of the work.