On March 10, a meeting of the EU Habitats Committee was held in Brussels which approved 83 project proposals of the 182 proposals that had been submitted to the European Commission in 2002 for LIFE-Nature funding. Of the eight project proposals submitted from Estonia, only two were approved - the bird protection projects of the Silma Nature Reserve and the Räpina polder. According to Estonia’s representative at the meeting Ms. Liina Eek-Piirsoo, Chief Specialist of the Nature Protection Department of the Ministry of the Environment, this so-called shortlist was approved regardless of the dissatisfaction of a number of EU member states and candidate countries. The latter was caused by lack of transparency concerning project evaluation and the insufficient clarity of evaluation criteria. The meeting also discussed the future of nature conservation funding in the EU. According to Ms. Eek-Piirsoo, the future of LIFE as the only fund aiming at the financing of nature conservation activities is very unclear at the moment. "There is a high probability that there will be no LIFE IV, and this year will be the last possibility for submitting project proposals for LIFE funding. In the opinion of the European Commission, the majority of existing funding instruments of the EU are also suitable for nature protection purposes. It was advised that the structural funds should be increasingly used for such purposes as the establishment of a new fund solely for nature protection purposes is very improbable - although all member states and candidate countries share the opinion that this would be necessary and find that nature protection activities are clearly underfinanced to date. The political decision as to the future of nature protection funding will only be made in September," said Ms. Eek-Piirsoo. Until then, Ms. Eek-Piirsoo advises everyone who intends to submit nature protection related project proposals to do this within 2003. The deadline for submitting LIFE-Nature proposals is the end of September, 2003. At the same time, it should be noted that the currently available application form will be amended and the new form will be available through the LIFE website in May. The lists of priority species will also be amended and will according to current plans be made available in May, too. According to those who evaluated project proposals, the current practice of Estonia regarding LIFE-Nature proposals cannot be continued. To date, one of the main sources of self-financing of the projects has been seminatural communities management support and, consequently, restoration and management of seminatural grasslands has been an important part of the submitted project proposals. There are two main options for terminating the overgrowing of grasslands with bushes - the grazing of animals or the procurement of mowing machines. "In the opinion of the European Commission, so many tractors and cattle have been procured in Estonia within the framework of the already ongoing projects that the continuation of this trend should not be allowed - in the future, such activities should be funded under agricultural support," said Ms. Eek-Piirsoo. In general, there is a tendency to direct nature protection funding towards the use of agricultural support measures regardless of the fact that a considerable share of nature conservation does not coincide with agricultural activities at all nor will it match the funding criteria of agricultural support measures. For additional information please contact: |
