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Nature conservation month dedicated to nature’s life cycle begins

At midday on Monday 12 May at Tallinn Botanical Garden, Deputy Minister of the Environment Rita Annus will be declaring Conservation Month open, which this year will last until 5 June. The opening ceremony will also feature the presentation of the Eerik Kumari nature conservation prize.

The theme of this year’s Conservation Month, the 28^th to be held, is ‘the life cycle of nature’. It is designed to draw people’s attention to the fact that things happen in nature according to their own system and that everything is interconnected. Conservation Month highlights the changes and developments that are taking place in the natural environment and people’s role in them.

“The aim of Conservation Month is to reduce the distance between urbanised people and nature and to remind them, through the large number of events that are taking place on conservation sites over the coming month, that the natural wonders we have here in Estonia are within a stone’s throw of everyone,” Deputy Minister Annus explained.

A range of themed events for both children and adults is scheduled for Conservation Month, chiefly organised by the regional divisions of the State Nature Conservation Centre, the county service departments of the Ministry of the Environment and the Estonian Nature Museum. Schools and kindergartens and associations and non-profit organisations will also be contributing to the promotion of Conservation Month.

The Deputy Director of the State Nature Conservation Centre, Leelo Kukk, will be giving an overview of the events to be held in the coming month at the opening ceremony. Rita Annus will also be presenting this year’s Eerik Kumari nature conservation award at the ceremony, a prize which has been give out for each of the last twenty years. Vaike Hang, secretary of the Nature Conservation Committee of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, will be talking about Kumari’s work.

Journalists are welcome to attend the opening ceremony of Conservation Month. If the weather is nice the ceremony will be held in the Conifer picnic area. If not, the event will take place in the Winter Garden.

The programme for Conservation Month is available from the Ministry of the Environment’s website at http://www.envir.ee/1026518 and on the website of the Nature Conservation Centre at www.lk.ee.

For further information please contact:
Eve Rand
Specialist, Public Relations Department, Ministry of the Environment
+372 626 2993 / +372 56 494 632

Aet Truu
Director of Communications, State Nature Conservation Centre
+372 627 2195 / +372 51 08 854

Brita Merisalu
Public Relations Officer, Ministry of the Environment
+372 626 2908 / +372 52 76 851

Background information:
National Conservation Months have been organised in Estonia since 1980. The goal of these special months is for everyone to contribute to the protection of the natural environment. The emphasis is on practical work, involving social organisations, students and conservationists alike.

A wide range of educational events is arranged, and natural sites are cleaned up. Each annual conservation month has a specific theme.

Themes of previous conservation months:
1996 – Protection of waterways and aquatic environments
1997 – Protection of Estonian forests
1998 – Conservation in towns and cities
1999 – Waste management and conservation of the natural environment
2000 – Estonia’s wetlands and their protection
2001 – Estonia’s semi-natural communities and their protection
2002 – Children and nature
2003 – Get to know the natural environment of your country
2004 – Species protection in Estonia
2005 – Natura 2000: shared opportunities for people and the environment
2006 – Protection of beaches and river banks
2007 – Trees in the way the nation thinks and speaks