National Parks
The Baltic States have nature reserves and national parks, including a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The national parks combine environmental preservation with public access. We will quote in particular:
Karula Mountains National Park: located in Estonia, it is home to sumptuous landscapes and lake ecosystems. Its rich biodiversity includes rare and endangered species of fauna and flora.
Lahemaa National Park : located in Estonia, it is a coastal area along the northern coast of the country. It preserves marine landscapes and ecosystems in several peninsulas and bays. The terrestrial part consists of forests and lakes, as well as islands and beaches.
Gauja National Park : located in Latvia, it protects the ecosystems of the Gauja Valley and combines environmental conservation with outdoor activities, including canoeing and hiking.
Kemeri National Park : located in Latvia, it shelters ecosystems of peat bogs but also lakes and forests. It has a rich biodiversity of flora and fauna, with significant birdlife
Aukštaitija National Park : located in Lithuania, it protects ecosystems of forests and lakes and shelters a very important biodiversity.
Kuršiu Nerij National Park: located in Lithuania, it contains the Lithuanian part of the Curonian Spit, shared between Lithuania and Russia (Kaliningrad). This UNESCO World Heritage site separates the Baltic Sea from the Curonian Spit. It has dune and forest ecosystems. The lagoon is also the habitat of many resident and migratory birds. The Kurchskaya Kossa National Park, in Russian territory, protects the other part of the Curonian Spit.
Protecting the Baltic Sea
The Baltic, an enclosed sea with fragile ecosystems, is subject to strong anthropic pressures. Agriculture, industry, maritime traffic and overfishing threaten biodiversity and thus the sustainability of human activities. As an outlet for the aqueous effluents of nine countries, it suffers mainly from industrial and agricultural discharges. Pollution by heavy metals, PCBs and pesticides has led to the contamination of the entire food chain. The spreading of fertilizers results in the discharge of water loaded with phosphates, nitrogen and nitrates into rivers and then into the sea, which contributes to the phenomenon of eutrophication and the depletion of oxygen in aquatic environments, leading to the asphyxiation of species and the formation of "dead zones". The Baltic Sea has some of the largest "dead zones" in the world, where life forms have disappeared. In addition, there is pollution from maritime traffic (oil spills, wastewater discharges), domestic wastewater, and chemical weapons, munitions and military ships sunk during the two world wars. Faced with this situation, the Helcom Commission, which is part of the Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, and which brings together the countries bordering the Baltic Sea, has initiated an action plan for the period 2007-2021 to combat pollution and protect the biodiversity of the Baltic. Among the measures recommended is the limitation of fertilizer use, which is important in the Baltic countries.
Towards sustainable mobility
The Baltic countries are accessible by train and boat. You should also know that two European cycle routes cross the three countries: EuroVelo 11 (Eastern European cycle route) and EuroVelo 13 (Iron Curtain cycle route). It should be noted that in Estonia, public transport (buses) is free of charge in the capital and in the majority of counties. Railway infrastructure projects for the transport of people and goods are underway to improve links between northern and eastern Europe. These include lines from Finland to Poland via the Baltic States (and the cities of Tallinn, Rīga and Kaunas), including the construction of a tunnel between Helsinki and Tallinn and three freight terminals in the ports of Muuga in Estonia, Salaspils in Latvia and Kaunas in Lithuania.
Risks related to forestry operations
Timber exploitation is an important economic activity in the Baltic States, which have a large forest cover. Forests are classified into different types according to their degree of protection, ranging from protected forests to forests exploited for economic purposes. Expanding and intensifying logging has generated a significant increase in forest biomass loss between 2016 and 2018, according to a study published in the journal Nature in 2020. The cut wood is mainly for the paper industry, construction, or biofuels. Logging, by reducing the carbon storage capacity of forests, contributes to slowing down the mitigation of global warming. Droughts and fires, which have never occurred before in the Baltic States - such as those that took place in Latvia in 2018 - are believed to be linked to ongoing climate change and also represent threats to forests.
Energy challenges
The Baltic countries, which have long been dependent on the outside world, particularly Russia, for energy, have implemented effective policies to develop renewable energy based on the construction of hydroelectric power plants and the installation of wind turbines. By 2015, Lithuania had reached and exceeded its target for renewable energy production. Latvia produces the majority of its electricity from hydroelectric power plants. Estonia has also achieved good results, above its targets, which is significant in a country that is one of Europe's largest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases, a situation linked to the exploitation of coal and oil shales.