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Sustainable Development in Estonia

The legal basis for sustainable development in Estonia is provided by the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia, which entered into force in 1992. The Act on Sustainable Development was approved in 1995 and accordingly long-term plans on sustainable development are to be elaborated in the energy, transport, agriculture, forestry, tourism, chemical industry, building materials industry and food industry sectors.

Estonian Commission on Sustainable Development was founded in 1996 as an advisory body to the Government on the issues of sustainable development. The task of the Commission is to analyse the policy of the state on sustainable development and to make proposals to the Government and to state and local government institutions ensuring synergy among developments in the economy, social affairs and environmental areas. Commission also has the right to propose drafting legislation and organising research on the subject.

supervised the development of the Estonian National Strategy on Sustainable Development – Sustainable Estonia 21, which was approved by the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) in September 2005.

Sustainable Estonia 21 is an integral conception which is clearly focused on sustainability of long-term development of the Estonian state and society until the year 2030. The general development goal of the country is to integrate the requirement to be successful in global competition with a sustainable development model and preservation of the traditional values of Estonia.

According to the Strategy the long-term goals for the development of the society are:

Viability of the Estonian cultural space - According to the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia, the state of Estonia shall ensure the preservation of the Estonian nature and culture through the ages. Sustainability of the Estonian nation and culture constitutes the cornerstone of sustainable development of Estonia;

Growth of welfare - Welfare is defined as the satisfaction of material, social and cultural needs of individuals, accompanied by opportunities for individual self-realisation and for realising one’s aspirations and goals;

Coherent society - Achievement of the first two goals will be possible only if the benefits from these goals can be used by the majority of population and the price for achieving these goals is not destructive for the society as an integral organism;

Ecological balance - Maintenance of ecological balance in the nature of Estonia is the central precondition for our sustainability. It is also our contribution to global development, following the principle that requires a balance both in matter cycles and in flows of energy at all levels of the living environment.

First report on the state of the implementation of the Estonian National Strategy on Sustainable Development was compiled and presented to the Government in 2007. The report (available in estonian) included a review of the principle activities necessary in implementing the strategy and an analysis of the attainment of the objectives set by the strategy.

Implementation and reporting processes of the Estonian National Strategy on Sustainable Development Strategy Bureau of the State Chancellery since 2006. All related ministries and other institutions are responsible for implementing of the sustainable development goals, monitoring and reporting in their respective fields. In order to cover the cross-cutting issues and inter-linkages an inter-ministerial working group at the Deputy Secretary General level was established in 2007.

One of the key challenges of sustinable development is introduction of the combined conception of nature as a value and as a central development resource of the society in the context of overall development of Estonia. The overall aim of the maintenance of ecological balance in the nature of Estonia is to integrate the considerations of self-regeneration capacity of nature into the use of nature. The main function of environmental protection is to achieve harmonious and balanced management of resources and the natural environment in the interests of the Estonian society.

Estonian Environmental Strategy 2030 builds upon the principles of the “Sustainable Estonia 21” and serves as the basis for the preparation and revision of all sector-specific development plans within the sphere of the environment. The Strategy was approved by the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) in 2005 and it defines long-term development trends for maintaining a good status of the natural environment, while keeping in mind the links between the environment, economic and social spheres and overal impact on the natural environment and people. National Environmental Action Plan for Estonia for 2007-2013 serves as the implementation plan of the Strategy.

Governance in the environmental field bases on the reliable environmental information and for that purpose generalised data on the Estonian nature, state of the environment and different influencing factors are provided by Estonian Environment Information Centre. Additional objective information service on the economic, demographic, social and environmental situation as well as trends in Estonia is provided by Statistics Estonia. Interlinkages and the core set of sustainability indicators on maps for European countries, regions and counties of Estonia as well as the performance valuation of countries, regions and counties can be found at Dashboard of Sustainability.

Estonia's own experience proves that economic growth and environmentally sustainable path of development can be achieved if relevant measures are applied both at national as well as local levels. There are lot of best practices and good examples of co-operation in rural areas in the sustainable development field from all over Estonia which we would like to share.

Estonian co-operation in the sustainable development field

European Union sustainable development process is regulated within the framework of the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development. Tha Strategy was renewed in 2006 and it deals in an integrated way with economic, environmental and social issues. Estonia contributes to the EU level implementation process and first national report was compiled in 2007.

In the environmental field the EU Sixth Environment Action Programme of the European Community 2002-2012 introduces the concept of Thematic Strategies which build on the existing EU legal and regulatory framework and include new knowledge on threats to human health and the environment. Thematic Strategies cover the following fields: air, waste prevention and recycling, marine environment, soil, pesticides, natural resources and urban environment and they will be reviewed in 2010. Respective fields in Estonia are managed by relevant Departments of the Ministry.

Estonian active partnership at the global level sustainable development process started at the UN Conference on Environment and Development -Rio Conference- in 1992. At the UN Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2002 implementation of the Agenda 21 and Millennium Development Goals were renewed. Estonian National Report on Sustainable Development 2002, which covers social sphere, economy, environment and governance issues of the sustainable development, was presented in Johannesburg.

UN Commission on Sustainable Development co-ordinates policies and activities at the global level on the bases of the CSD multi-year programme of work. The program is divided into working cycles in which the thematic clusters of issues will  be addressed in an integrated manner, taking into account economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Estonia is member of the Commission and contributes to the implementation of the multi-year programme of work. In own activities Estonia follows the principle that goal-oriented implementation of agreed global targets support national efforts, send positive signal to the regional level and this in turn adds value to the global sustainable development process itself.

Estonia is participating in the regional sustainable development co-operation Baltic Agenda 21 which was launced by the 11 Baltic Sea Region countries in 1998. Baltic 21 contributes towards advancing sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region through initiating and implementing the cross-sectoral projects.  Projects are tools for demonstrating sustainable development in practice, they ensure high visibility and a value-added contribution to regional sustainability through involving stakeholders from different countries.