Life Forestfarmland Adaptive Tender

Duration 01-JAN-2020 to 31-DEC -2029Total budget 19561784.00 EU contribution 11611434.00 Project descriptionBackgroundIn Estonia half of the mainland territory is covered by forests and about one fourth is covered by agricultural land. About half of the protected EU habitats and species in Estonia based on the last Article 17 report of the Habitats Directive are considered to be in favourable conservation status. With regards to bird species in the EU almost 50 of grassland-related bird species are declining or are in unfavourable status and the situation is the same in Estonia. The assessments also show a declining number of pollinators. The main pressures and threats to forest and farmland species and habitats have been changing forestry and agricultural practices the decline of traditional and extensive land-use climate change changes to natural hydrological regimes and urbanisation. More and more people have moved to the bigger cities and rural areas are sparsely populated mainly by elderly people who are relatively inactive. Farmlands are used by bigger companies or farmers who are using large areas for growing monocultures that are managed intensively with the goal of making as much profit as possible. Small farming is not so popular and necessary any more. Therefore there is a need for a common management approach and cross-sectoral cooperation in the field of nature conservation to improve common understanding and implementation of different guidelines and actions. As one third of Estonian Natura 2000 network sites are located on private land better involvement of landowners is crucial in achieving nature conservation objectives.ObjectivesThe main objective of the LIFE-IP ForEstFarmLand project is to implement the most critical part of the Estonian Prioritised Actions Framework PAF for Natura 2000 relating to forests and agricultural land. The management of Natura 2000 sites has so far been based on mostly bans and restrictions which creates a negative image of nature conservation. One goal of this project will be to change the management of Natura 2000 sites towards more adaptive conservation measurespractices.LIFE-IP ForEstFarmLand aims to improve the conservation status of forest and farmland habitats and species to achieve results that benefit whole ecosystems improve conservation practices and collaboration between administrative authorities and raise awareness and capacity of main stakeholders and general public including the use of innovative tools and solutions. In addition to the IP budget itself the project will facilitate the coordinated use of over 70 000 000 of complementary funding from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development EAFRD EU Cohesion Funds Horizon 2020 European Economic Area and Norwegian Financial Mechanism State Funding and other financial programmes.ResultsExpected results The implementation of the LIFE-IP F