When support services are taken into account, it is evident that the process of reform for the agricultural sector still is quite incomplete, apart from land reform questions. Agricultural reforms in Estonia during the last few years focussed on:
compensation of historical injustice (compensation of labour shares and nationalised properties);
reorganisation of proprietorship relations of operating assets and assets of collective and state farms;
reorganisation of enterprises and establishment of new agricultural enterprises; separation of non-agricultural activities from agricultural businesses.
During the reforms relatively little attention was paid to:
replacement of services that were formerly offered by collective and State farms (especially land cultivation, harvesting, marketing, input supply and other agricultural services for small-scale producers);
new services required by conditions of market economy (e.g. marketing, advice on business management);
specific requirements for organisation of new service institutions established during the reforms (advice and extension for different producers' groups, processing and marketing);
temporary services required during restructuring of agricultural reforms and enterprises. (extension and advice for realisation of agricultural reforms; advice for company restructuring; informing rural population about their possibilities, rights and obligations due to agricultural reforms; legal advice to entitled persons; extension activities concerning new skills are required such as marketing and the ability to organise and manage private service cooperatives. At the level of national policy, little attention has been paid to the requirements for advice and financing for the organisation of new modes of supplying the needed services. So we can say that in a broad perspective agricultural reforms have been realised only partially and are not completed yet. Taking into account the requirements for support services, it appears that the full costs of economic reform — the expenditures required for the full range of reforms-are considerably bigger than expected.
Lack of a certain support service means for a producer that he has to do something somebody else could do better, quicker and with better quality. In many cases lack of service, support system or infrastructure means there will be no access to certain resources and the production process has to be-stopped. If things go really wrong this might mean that production will be unsold.
Access to the market does not depend solely on the producer, as the following example from real life shows. In Haanjamaa there is a group of farmers who use some organic (biodynamical) technology in their production activities. This kind of production has reasonable prospects: biodynamically manufactured goods have higher prices, there exists a world demand for them and no import quotas have been set in other countries for such production. The local farmers' problem is construction of an intermediate warehouse where to store their production, because when a sales contract is signed the goods have to be delivered within a short period of time. Considering bad local road conditions there might be serious delivery problems in winter period when it is cold and there is a lot of snow.
In 1995 Haanja farmers had a chance to export their production. There were some precontracts concluded with the foreign partner, and production quality was in accordance to the requirements set. The deal was not concluded as there was no organic (biodynamical) trademark from Estonia which the partner could market, so there was no possibility to ask for a higher price. What is required is a nationally recognised brand of biodynamical production, that is, proof that the production carried out in accordance to certain quality requirements. But this was not possible as the corresponding legislation did not exist-and still does not.
Requirements that are in principle similar to the ones mentioned also hold good for any food products exported to the European Union. There can be no serious discussion concerning Estonia's consolidation with European Union when we don't have any organised, nationally acknowledged monitoring system that would prove our production is in accordance to the requirements of EU. This problem has to do with all sectors of the economy.
In addition to the problem of farm support services, the provision of general rural services is declining in quality. In the long run, this will cost the nation more. For example, lack of maintenance of rural roads will mean having to rebuilt many of them. Lack of adequate job training and placement services will cause more costs to society in the form of unemployment benefits, health care, family counselling, and so forth.
Local governments have not been accustomed to the degree of autonomy they now enjoy, and more to the point, to the degree of responsibility which that confers on them. Their staffs urgently need training in the management of services and infrastructure, as well as financial management. In addition, their fiscal base needs strengthening so that basic services can continue to be provided even at the present level. These are serious problems but are worthy of attention at the highest levels, for the role played by local governments is vital to sustaining rural communities and an acceptable standard of living in rural areas. Privatisation is playing an increasing role in regard to rural services, and this is a healthy trend, but local governments will have a permanent role in this respect as well.
Rural social services are clearly vital to our standard of living but are becoming progressively less adequate in light of the growing social problems in rural areas. The role in rural development of all these important classes of services can be enhanced by:
Strengthening the fiscal basis of local government. Most local governments are on fragile ground in this respect. The land reform programmes would result in, among other benefits, an increasing stream of revenues for local governments, from land rentals and sales.
Intensified training programmes for local government officials, in all areas of management of services.
Continuation of the trend of privatisation basic communal services (potable water, sewerage, garbage classification, recycling and disposal).
Improved national programmes for health, education and infrastructure development.
More active participation of local authorities in business development in their counties, and greater awareness of the ways in which they can make their counties more attractive to investors.
National assistance for retraining rural populations.
Greater participation by the rural citizenry in local affairs, individually and through voluntary associations, making the best of the opportunities offered by a democratic society.
Programmes for building awareness among public employees, and staff of publicly-financed institutions, of the value of country life.
In regard to agricultural research. It is estimated that 80% of all the problems agricultural producers face can be solved using 20% of available information, provided it reaches producers in a timely and usable form. Communication between agricultural research and users of research results has to become more effective. It is essential to arrange functioning of the system of agricultural research so that:
it can determine the most important problems the producers encounter;
it will develop or retrieve the information needed to solve those problems;
there is a properly articulated information transmission process that gives the advisors and producers clear, understandable and well-formatted information in a timely manner.
Traditionally, in agricultural research model of technological push has been prevailing. First of all, new technological solutions were developed, then there were attempts to apply them in production. To make agricultural innovations more effective it is necessary to apply a market pull model: in response to market demands and the problems producers encounter, scientific and technological solutions are sought and applied in production. If research responds to problems actually perceived in practice, the chances of its being applied are considerably enhanced.
Utilising this approach is consistent with a participatory focus to agricultural advisory services, in which advisors work together with farmers and agricultural enterprises to analyse their problems and seek solutions.
In the longer run, producers should bear a larger share of the burden of financing agricultural research. At the same time, they should participate in decisions about priorities for research programmes. Nevertheless, in the medium run more national funding for research will be essential. Salaries for researchers have fallen so low that the system is losing expertise rapidly. The future productivity of Estonian agriculture depends to a considerable degree on maintaining an adequate research capacity.
Criteria for allocating research funding need to be reviewed and brought up to date as well. Researchers should no longer be allowed the luxury of pursuing their own professional interests, but instead the priorities should be established by the needs of the sector.
Regarding the possibilities for joint provision of farm support services, it must be commented that in Estonia of today the word “cooperation” has acquired a slightly political flavour, very often in common discussion one can put sign of equality between “cooperative” and “collective farm”. In reality, the meaning of those two phrases is completely different, and private service cooperatives offer a large opportunity to improve the delivery of services to farms (including agricultural enterprises, an opportunity which has been insufficiently exploited to date).
To take a real-life example, several dairy farms are modernising their milking equipment (milk production has lot of perspective, the processing companies lack raw material, there are quite favourable conditions for taking a loan for buying required equipment). A German expert, who visited Estonia, discovered that in a certain area several dairy farmers had bought new milking equipment from the same company, under separate contracts with the company. The expert pointed out that if the milk producers had made such a big purchase together, buying from the company five sets of milking equipment at the same time, each of them would have obtained new equipment at considerable lower price. Other areas in which private cooperation could be especially beneficial to farmers include:
Purchases of seed, animal feed, feed supplements, fertilisers, plant protection chemicals, etc. (when buying a bigger volume the price will be lower);
Purchase of machinery services for land preparation, harvesting, and other tasks on the farm.
Ordering and purchasing required computer programmes (for bookkeeping, feeding, etc.). Also it is possible to have a programme considering the specific features and needs of each _ company, even though orders for the programmes are made jointly.
Purchase and use of equipment. For example, a grain farm needs harvesting equipment, but is not able to buy it alone, and using expensive equipment alone won't be profitable.
Joint planting decisions. When a farm in a certain location has specialised in growing seed of a certain grain culture all the other grain farms should grow the same specie. For example, rye is a cross-pollination culture, and when cultivating rye for seed it is important to ensure that no different species are been cultivated in the area.
Purchase of processing services (output of one farmer is not sufficient to interest a processing company, but together several farmers can offer an amount that will be acceptable for processing.
Joint purchase of storage services for inputs and outputs.
Joint marketing (offering amounts that are acceptable for the buyer, thereby decreasing transportation costs per unit). Sometimes joint marketing gives farmers access to niche markets that otherwise would be closed to them.
Maintenance of land amelioration systems (provided they have been rehabilitated).
Receiving training and advice tailored to personal requirements (cheaper price, better information: the best advisor for a farmer is another farmer!).Organisation of cooperation also presumes some expenditures that are different when compared to acting individually. In cases of cooperative relationships, management and co-ordination of activities is needed. This supposes existence of organisations. Here an important role can be played by agricultural advisors who are trained to address the legal, organisational and administrative issues concerning service cooperatives. Estonian farmers so far do not have much experience with these kinds of organisations.
The tradition of cooperation among producers in services has not been entirely lost. The above-mentioned examples of formation of dairy producers' extension cooperatives in four counties attests to the awareness among producers of the value of such cooperation.
The analysis presented in Chapter 6 makes it clear that at present the provision of agricultural supporting services is inadequate and constitutes a constraint on the development of the full productive potential of the sector. Full transition to a market economy requires not only elimination of controls on prices and production and changes in the forms of asset ownership, but also development of new institutional forms for the provision of essential services that support production.
The importance of re-training, additional training, extension and advice during the reform process has to be pointed out. Collective and State farms were big enough to hire and maintain specialists in specific fields, i.e., chief agronomists, chief auxiliary production specialists, etc. Agricultural production units that were established during the agricultural reform process (private farms, limited liability and stock companies, cooperatives) usually are too small to have so many specialists in various fields. At the same time, there still exists a need for those specialised skills and knowledge.
On the one hand, the knowledge and skills of new mangers of agricultural production units now have to be more varied that before. A manager of an agricultural business must now deal not only with planning cultivation tasks and animal husbandry but also must be well versed in business management and legislation. On the other hand, there is a need for new types of knowledge that were not required before. Examples include marketing, quality control in accordance with market requirements, price negotiation, risk analysis, development of business plans and financing plans, and the organisation of cooperation among private entities.
The requirements for developing service institutions and providing the required training throughout the sector imply a considerable, amount of technical assistance that reaches well beyond the scope of the current agricultural advisory programmes. Furthermore, the reduced agricultural profitability that has accompanied the macroeconomic reforms means that financial assistance will be required to pay for such services during a transition period and to capitalise the new service institutions (private service cooperatives, service-providing companies).
Therefore, as a fundamental recommendation of this Strategy, it is necessary to establish a Transition Fund for Agricultural Support Services. It is expected that such a fund could receive financial contributions from donor countries and international organisations as well as from the national budget. It would organise the provision of information and advice regarding services and training, and it would finance the capital costs of new private organisations (of both cooperative and joint stock types) dedicated to supplying services to agricultural producers. In order to ensure the viability of the financial assistance, it also would provide management.advice to such organisations.
The fund would give special emphasis to the organisation of: processing cooperatives, marketing cooperatives, input purchase cooperatives, cooperatives for obtaining marketing information and agricultural advice, mechanisation cooperatives, and other private cooperatives to support production. It also would give special emphasis to outlying areas, and it would devote important efforts to informational campaigns to make rural populations aware of the opportunities for organising private service cooperatives and companies and the benefits that could be obtained from them. It would respond to requests from groups of farmers that wished to explore the formation of service cooperatives, giving them detailed explanations and then working with them to develop the form of cooperative most suited to their needs. It also would assist individual rural entrepreneurs that wished to found companies dedicated to supplying specified agricultural services. The most obvious example here would be a company that purchases machinery and supplies land preparation services and harvesting services to farmers in the area.
The fund would also provide advice to local governments in the management of their services to rural populations. Upon the implementation of the recommendations in Chapter 3 regarding the broadening of the scope of the land reform, local governments should receive a greater flow of revenues from land sales and rentals that would enable them to better maintain infrastructure and provide essential services, but they need training in this field.
Only through such an effort can the bottleneck represented by inadequate provision of supporting services be overcome. This Transition Fund for Agricultural Support Services can be regarded as the third leg of the sector's reform process, the first two of which concerned agricultural reform (ownership of structures and machinery) and land reform.
In the area of strengthening the advisory service, the principal policy recommendations include, among others:
Review experiences with the PASDF and formulate concrete proposals for improvements in the following areas:
The amount to be distributed per contract and the distribution of funds among counties based on actual demand.
Monitoring of the use of funds based on random visits to farmers who have received advisor}' services.
A more elaborate set of eligibility criteria for farmers, based on the economic viability of the individual farms, using a simple points system that gives weighted values for the major farm assets and farmer skills, under prevailing market conditions.
A skill gap analysis to assess the training needs of the advisors, including an inventory of most needed advisory tools and references.
Support to the Association of Advisors. Such support could include funding for a newsletter and the development of professional standards.
Future ownership of the PASDF.
Carry out a participatory needs assessment to define a number of priority programmes that would have a public benefit, but would not be paid for by the farmers. Such programmes could include a brochure on sustainable manure disposal, a training programme on integrated pest management, or a television series on simple accounting skills, for instance. Financing for these priority programmes could come from savings made by no longer providing the-Farmers' Union with a lump-sum subsidy for non-specified extension activities.
Establish an Agricultural Training Centre to assist agricultural teachers and advisors to maintain the levels of competence in all relevant areas. The Training Centre would be a communication point and initiator of mass information campaigns as well.
Strengthen the Ministry of Agriculture extension task force with two additional positions: one to focus particularly on the priority programmes, and one to assist in the PASDF development and alternative income advice. This would leave the task force leader in charge of the PASDF development, but allow him to work on the upscaling of successful pilot projects, more extension policy development, and monitoring of results on the ground.
Restore and increase the funding provided to associations that provide advice on ecologically sound (biodynamical) techniques of agriculture. As well as benefiting our environment, this kind of programme will be very important in the long run for gaining and retaining access to foreign markets for our agricultural products.
Develop a monitoring system that would provide rapid, manager-friendly information on inputs, outputs and impact of advisory work.
Finally, serious consideration should be given to establishing a nation-wide network of local forest reserves that can be used for recreational purposes, for harvesting berries, mushrooms, etc., that can be used for hunting in cases where it would be safe, and that can be a source of supply of small amounts of timber for local, personal purposes. Established on an appropriate scale, such reserves would not affect Estonia's position as a supplier of large amounts of commercial timber, and yet they would provide very substantial benefits to rural life. This kind of programme would be an example of combining a clear orientation to a market economy with adequate provision for meeting basic social concerns.
The establishment of local forest reserves should be accompanied by training of local officials in their multiple-use management. Among other considerations, assistance should be provided in establishing transparent schemes for awarding permits for harvesting small quantities of timber from these reserves for strictly local and personal use.
Only some of the principal recommendations of this Chapter can be summarised in the space available. The interested reader is referred to section VI of Chapter 7 for further recommendations and discussion.
Point and Diffuse Pollution
To decrease the impact of agriculture in terms of environmental pollution, we have to conduct more cause-and-effect studies and achieve the following operational aims:
Eliminate the problems in manure management as sources of groundwater pollution.
Act on the recommendations of HELCOM and EU as to the application of mineral fertilisers, manure and hazardous chemicals.
Avoid the concentration of production in unfavourable places from the water protection point of view.
Provide necessary protection in the Pandivere Upland groundwater formation region, given its importance to the nation.
Provide an inventory of the state of the water treatment and purifying stations of enterprises and villages, find out their ownership, appraise their technical conditions and the necessities and opportunities for their rehabilitation.
Cut down on untreated waste water discharges into bodies of water and groundwater.
Provide common systems for supplying potable drinking water in villages (especially for the ones in contaminated water catchments).
The following steps should be taken to reduce environmental damage that results from plant protection measures in agriculture:
Implement an integrated plant protection system where the emphasis is placed on advanced organisational and agronomic techniques (e.g. correct cultivation, crop rotation, balanced fertilisation, making use of disease resistant varieties, etc.). The application of chemical plant protection measures should be seen as a last resort.
Use only environmentally friendly and harmless plant protection measures and pesticides that would satisfy the requirements of plant sanitation and food hygiene regulations.
Guarantee farmers timely information about the appearance, development and spread of pests so that effective preventive measures could be taken at the most appropriate time, thus cutting down on the total volume of pesticide consumption.
Provide training and employment tests for plant protection personnel.
Register and classify modern and effective pesticides on the basis of expert evaluations and classification systems used in other countries.
Expand the use of natural chemicals through agricultural advisory efforts and credit-programmes that promote biodynamic (ecological friendly) agriculture. (Chapter 6 develops this point more.)
Although ecologically friendly agriculture is on the rise, at present it is impossible to give up on chemicals altogether, because pests may decrease productivity up to 25–40%, and affect the quality and marketability of crops. In some extreme years they might ruin the whole crop.
Soil Contamination and Residual Pollution
The goal here is to do away with residual wastes and discarded objects left by activities which have come to an end or have moved elsewhere, and to return the spoiled landscapes to cultivation. To achieve these aims we should:
Through legislation, assign responsibility to the State in cases in which it has polluted and otherwise damaged the environment, including responsibility for residual pollution when the enterprise is privatised.
Clean up residual pollution brought about by agricultural production (abandoned fuel depots, abandoned machinery, etc.).
Prevent leaching from storage depots and landfills.
Solve the problems connected with the waste management of small farms and agricultural enterprises (by establishing and maintaining dump sites, composting wastes, and transporting and treating hazardous wastes).
Carry out an evaluation and inventory of abandoned facilities (farms, storehouses, rural manufacturing workshops, etc.) as possible sources for point pollution, find ways for their rehabilitation and use, or their clean up.
Local governments should take on the responsibility for evaluating sources of residual waste in their territories, as it is the main threat to the quality of groundwater. However, they undoubtedly will need technical advice and perhaps financial assistance as well in order to assume this responsibility.
We should aim to stabilise the amount of domestic waste at 250–300 kg per person per year and increase recycling by 30–40%. In addition, it is necessary to guarantee the treatment, storage and burial of the waste according to internationally approved environmental and hygienic requirements, and to optimise the number of domestic dump sites.
It will be required also to construct new dump sites that meet the standards of the EU and close down the old ones.
A system for hazardous waste treatment in agriculture should be created and farmers educated in its purposes and use. Correspondingly, hazardous waste treatment services should be provided throughout the country.
Land Use and Cultivation Practices
One of the major challenges in this area is to increase the adoption of ecological agricultural practices. As well as providing benefit to the environment in the form of reduced levels of contamination of soils and water, and lower rates of soil degradation, adoption of such practices will open up higher-value export markets for Estonian farmers. On a world level, this field is one of the fastest growing in agriculture. What is needed is greater advisory support for farmers in this area, and in addition financing is required. Small portions of the credit allocated through the Agricultural and Rural Life Credit Fund can achieve greater advances in this field, which is still in its infancy in Estonia. Also, the national Government could consider temporary subsidies for farmers undertaking such practices, until they are able to realise some of the economic benefits of the new techniques. In the short run, they are likely to experience reductions in yields and incomes, and therefore they need support in order to be convinced that in the longer run ecological agriculture is worthwhile.
Biodiversity
a) Biodiversity and landscapes
An operational goal in regard to biodiversity is to commit the sectors managing natural resources to the aims of biodiversity protection and sustainable agriculture. For this to be achieved, it likely to be essential to undertake intersectoral programmes and projects so that biodiversity considerations can influence decisions on investment by the sectors interested in using the resource base primarily for production. This implies a degree of interinstitutional coordination that has not yet been achieved, so the Government will have to devote particular attention to this requirement.
Also, it will be necessary to establish and maintain new protection zones, compensative areas and core nature areas to enhance biodiversity. Not only nature reserves, but also buffer zones are required. They act as filters and obstacles that inhibit the spread of pollutants. They are especially useful along riverbanks, in the form of forested strips ten metres or more in width on each side of a river, to help reduce the leaching of pollutants from soils into the rivers.
For landscape protection programmes to be effective, local governments and associations need to become full partners in their design and implementation. This is another area where the national Government should intensify its efforts, in the sense of devoting more resources to working actively with local governments and citizens' associations, for they are the institutions which have the greatest interest in the preservation of their landscapes and wildlife habitats.
b) Plant husbandry
Up to now there are no general guidelines or laws to regulate the management and storage of gene banks. Estonia has cooperated with the gene banks and experimental stations in Latvia and Lithuania. A lot of Estonian varieties are preserved in Latvian fruit research stations. In the framework of mutual assistance pacts all the Baltic States are in the sphere of interest of the Nordic Gene Bank, although it is not yet clear if our fruit and berry varieties and cultivars could be stored there. .However, it is obvious that our varieties and cultivars should be replicated elsewhere, and they should be stored in different places.
At the same time Estonian gene banks, based on internationally recognised methodologies, should be formed. Formally this work was started last year, but unfortunately, it has been a very slow process. The finished parts of the database should be replicated and kept in different places. Gene banks and the information about their varieties and cultivars should be made easily accessible for the specialists in Estonia and any other country. Uncertainty as to where to store in gene banks is currently an acute problem for EVIKA, the Polli Experimental Station, the Institute of Experimental Biology and the Nigula Nature Reserve.
An essential step would be the preparation and creation of a legislative framework concerning the protection of agricultural accession collections. Among other things the law should guarantee that in the future one official could not decide upon liquidation or reorganisation of the collection. Funds should be allotted for the maintenance of the collections. It should be remembered that in the long run maintenance of a base of genetic diversity is essential to guarantee the survival of agriculture.
c) Animal husbandry
The genetic base for livestock has become narrower, and therefore more fragile, over the past few decades. In order to reverse this trend, it is necessary to do the following things:
Assign priority to the varieties bred in Estonia, for research purposes.
Arrange a systematic inventory of varieties characteristic of Estonia (including such economically less important species as goats, poultry, etc.).
Increase the number of Estonian Native Cattle to 2,000, to avoid the danger of their eventual extinction. To avoid inbreeding it is advisable to use Finnish bulls.
A state institution should take up Estonian Native Horse breeding, since in the foreseeable future it will not be a profitable activity. A detailed plan should be drawn up. Selection should be based on their adaptation to local conditions and suitability for various uses, including as a tourist attraction. The Herdbook for the Estonian Native Horse should be kept pure.
d) Fish stocks and protection of coastal areas
To protect surface and coastal shelf waters we have to:
Work out a scheme for the rational, sustainable exploitation of water bodies. This will require extensive coordination and consultations with fishermen's associations and coastal communities, and it should be developed in the context of broader, integrated development plans for those communities.
Once such a scheme is in place, coordinate the issuance of fishing licenses and regulations on fishing technology so that those instruments promote the fulfillment of the scheme.
Guarantee the biological and if necessary also chemical treatment of waste waters.
Work toward the development of regional international treaties for improving and preserving coastal water quality. Priority for such treaties would have to be given to the Gulf of Finland.
e) Landscapes and forestry
Create a modern conception for the in situ and ex-situ protection of the genetic bank of the Estonian forests.
Improve and elaborate on different aspects of plant and animal species protection, landscape and habitat protection in the framework of updated legislation bearing in mind international agreements and the requirements of the EU.
Improve the existing network of nature reserves following the lines of the EU recommendations, based on strategies for landscapes and biological diversity, which are embodied in the programmes Natura 2000 and Pan-Europe.
Preserve all natural and semi-natural forest types and tree populations by setting up a network of well-protected forest reserves.
f) Genetic diversity
Estonia should be the first to be solicitous about the survival of local breeds and varieties. This calls for well-considered plans of action, programmes and legislation. All varieties and cultivars should be replicated. It is advisable to create exchange deposits in the neighbouring countries. The creation of a regional gene bank, e.g. Baltoscandia, would fit the purpose.
Ecological Agriculture
To bring together people interested in alternative methods of agricultural production the Estonian Biodynamic Association was formed in 1989. At present its membership is more than 160 people.
Out of 120 ecological farms (1 July 1996), 56 farms have achieved certification with the label “eco” that Swedish and Finnish specialists have used in certification and advising of ecofarms. At this time, Estonia enjoys very good conditions for advancing ecological agriculture. In recent years the loss of farmers' purchasing power has brought about a decrease in agrochemical application. ...This trend has enhanced the natural renewal processes of the soil. Other natural and favourable preconditions are the diversity of landscapes and mosaic structure of arable lands. It is noteworthy that the traditional Estonian way of rural life and agricultural production has always approximated the modern conception of sustainable development.
On the whole our State does not support ecological agriculture as State budgetary appropriations on it amounted to only kr 500,000, despite the requirement for amounts several times greater. To encourage ecological agriculture, a Government programme for its development, which includes the following factors, should be initiated (Michelson ja Peterson, 1996):
Creation of demonstration farms where ecological methods could be applied.
The building of a network of extension and information services and increasing allotments on research.
Creating a basis for farmers to borrow for covering production expenses under ecological agriculture, if necessary by modifying some of the operating policies of the Agriculture and Rural Life Credit Fund.
Working out a monitoring and control system according to the requirements of the EU.
Improving the marketing conditions for ecological products.
Developing a wider system for certifying and labeling environmentally sound products.
Supporting ecological agriculture on a wider range in case agriculture is going to be subsidised directly (Chapter 2).
Recommendations of an Institutional, Legislative and Economic Nature
a) Employment of Environmental-Friendly Technology
In order to facilitate the adoption of appropriate technologies of production, it will be necessary to:
= Develop a system of standards, criteria and requirements to assess the environmental impact of technological processes and production. This requires a considerable amount of technical work and must be updated continuously, making as much use as possible of information from other countries.
Develop guidelines for environmental management in agriculture, and support the agricultural advisory services in carrying out a program of informing farmers of these guidelines.
b) Legislation in the Field of Environment
By the end of the year 1995 about 70% of the needed legislation acts concerning the utilisation of mineral resources, environmental protection and territory planning had been adopted, were in proceedings or in preparation.
In the future more attention should be paid to the regulation and systematisation of legislation as well as taking measures for integrating the legislative framework with the norms of the EU. The following new legislation, and regulations for existing laws, are needed:
Landscape Protection Law
Soil Protection Law
Regulation on Ecological Agriculture
Regulation on Use of Fertilisers
Regulation on Agricultural Production
Supplement for the Act on Sustainable Development
Other legislative priorities include:
Draft laws establishing the requirements of the “White Book” should be compiled and standardised.
Emission requirements should step-by-step be adjusted to those of the EU.
Environmental standards should be made to conform to those of ISO and CEN.
Surveys about the relevant legislation, regulations and recommended practices concerning environmental protection should be prepared for the Farmers Unions, cooperatives, and agricultural advisors.
General Orientations
Rural social problems affect not only rural areas but all of Estonian society. We are one people, and our policies should not favour one segment of the population at the expense of another. Social and economic problems in rural areas cost the entire society in many ways, including lost productivity and additional fiscal expenditures on social support measures. In addition, some of the unemployed and disaffected persons migrate to urban areas where they are easy prey for those few who prefer illegal and anti-social activities.
Rural social problems cannot be solved by palliatives, by measures which only treat the symptoms rather than the underlying causes of the problems. In the longer run, solutions can only arise out of a more balanced intersectoral pattern of economic growth and more decentralised economic activity in many sectors. A concrete and forceful programme of developing regional growth centres is required. Equally, the financial and administrative capacities of local governments must be strengthened, the corresponding social programmes strengthened, and all channels must be improved for citizen participation in solving problems of common concern.
A third basic pillar of rural social policy is improvement in quality and accessibility of rural education, most particularly technical vocational education and labour force training. In this area, advances lag much behind those of other forms of education. In order to reduce unemployment and underemployment it is urgent and essential to carry out a fundamental restructuring of the system of vocational education and training. The fourth basic pillar should the reorientation of national policies toward small farms, which are by far the most numerous kind of farm but which so far have been practically ignored by policymakers and excluded from some basic rights that larger private farms have obtained.
Unemployment and Poverty
a) A Programme of Regional Growth Poles
The most effective means of reducing unemployment and poverty in the countryside is the creation of rural economic growth. This can occur in part through a recuperation of agricultural growth, following the recommendations of the other Chapters in this Strategy. Agricultural growth not only generates more employment on farms. It also creates additional demand for agricultural services and increases purchasing power in the countryside, which creates demands for other kinds of goods and services, some of which can be supplied locally.
Rural economic growth also requires diversification, which means the development of more industries and service centres in the countryside. Estonia is a relatively compact country by European standards, and the network of main highways is in relatively good condition, so industrial decentralisation from the Tallinn area need not imply inefficiencies in production. The small increase in costs that might result from location in rural areas can easily be offset by lower land costs and the advantages of a rural environment for the labour force and its families.
By the same token, it will not be feasible to develop industries in every county. Regional growth poles will need to emerge, and for that to occur it will be necessary to make additional investments in infrastructure and to provide transitory incentives for industries and service enterprises to locate there. The basic recommendations in this area are to:
On the basis of careful analysis, identify 15 potential growth poles throughout the country, other than Tallinn, Harjumaa and East Virumaa.
Work closely with local governments, business associations, farmers associations, labour unions, and other voluntary associations in drawing up sustainable development plans for the growth poles.
Substantially increase the budget of the national government for infrastructure investments, and concentrate the increase in such investments in the growth poles. The identification of which kinds of investments should receive priority should be made jointly with local governments and local voluntary associations, as part of the development plans.
Concentrate technical and vocational education programmes in those growth poles (see below for further discussion of these programmes).
Provide significant tax incentives for a seven-year period for Estonian firms choosing to locate in the growth poles or to expand their existing operations there.
Provide special incentives for foreign investments to locate in the growth poles.
Establish branch offices of national government entities and programmes in the growth poles, to help create a critical mass of employment in each of those centres.
Work with local governments in establishing municipal forests and other areas for recreation and nature study on the perimeter of the growth poles, to ensure that the environmental quality is maintained. (See Chapters 6 and 10 on the subject of the municipal forests.)
By themselves, the infrastructure investment projects in the regional growth poles will generate considerable amounts of new employment. Over the longer run, the development of regional growth poles will not only favour the creation of non-agricultural employment in rural areas, but such poles also will come to be centres of services, including cultural attractions and other amenities for families. In that sense, they will improve the quality of life for the farm population in surrounding areas, which will gain easier access to such services. A more direct contribution to the quality of rural life will be the provision of employment opportunities for the spouses and children of farm workers.
In view of national policy with respect to borderlands, at least one of the growth poles should be located on the islands and at least two should be located near inland borders. Supporting policies should include negotiations to reduce the customs delays at the border with Latvia and to reduce the barriers to trade that have been imposed by Russia.
b) Poverty and Small Farms
One of the most effective ways to reduce poverty* in the countryside is to support the further intensification of agriculture on the household plots. Those plots already are much more productive per hectare than agricultural enterprises and larger family exploitations classified as “private farms” and only their small size keeps their families in relative poverty. While small plots cannot be converted into grain farms or dairies which are competitive, they can be competitive in many products, including most fruits and vegetables, spices, decorative plants, honey and other crops.
These household plots are handicapped by current policies in a way that larger family farms arc not, that is, they have not been given legal title to their land. This means the land cannot be passed to heirs, the incentives for investing in improving the land are nullified, and the land cannot be used as collateral for bank loans to cover production costs. There is no logical reason why the poorest farming families, who should receive assistance, instead are penalised by policy. Therefore it is urgent to implement the recommendations of Chapter 3 for titling these farms.
It should be pointed out that having title to the land means having an asset of value. In the case of the household plots, this asset has been earned by a lifetime of work on State farms and collective farms. With title to the land, some of these families will be able to sell their plots and start life in another location or sector with a small sum of capital to help them make the transition. Therefore, the recommended programme of titling would encourage a reallocation of labour to non-agricultural occupations and at the same time would provide the legal foundation for a more active land market which would lead to a gradual consolidation of some of those plots into larger farms which could be competitive in a broader range of crops. Meanwhile, those farmers who choose to remain with their plots could make them even more productive with the asset represented by the land title. From a rural social viewpoint, this programme would be one of the most important.
The subsistence farms (household plots) generally have the knowledge and technology necessary for production activities, but the supportive structures that used to operate before, supplying services of combines and other machinery, insemination, joint input purchase, marketing, etc., have stopped with the restructuring of the collective and State farms.
The farm advisory services need to make household plots one of their priorities (Chapter 6), and for at least several more years the Government needs to subsidise the provision of advisory services to these farms. Advice on farm management, the preparation of business plans, quality control, and marketing is especially needed. Advisory recommendations for subsistence farms also could include ways to contract the production in advance to buyers, possibilities for supplementary technology (milk cooling equipment, silage technology,'plant protection, breed improvement), options for narrower specialisations (berry or fruit growing, potato growing, spice cultivation, etc.), strengthening links to processing industries (cheese, cottage cheese, woolen products, etc.), and making the transition to more suitable forms of production and technology (tourism farms, ecological agriculture, herb growing, mushroom growing, seed growing). Ecological agriculture offers a potentially very profitable niche for small farms.
Other supporting services can be established for the subsistence farms employing retired persons and other persons who are no longer fully employed. At first, this can be a responsibility of local government, managed by heads of villages and social workers of the communities. Eventually, if the services prove their value and they help raise incomes on household plots, they could be transferred to private sector providers. Such services can include ploughing, cultivation of land, providing seeds and fertilizers, sowing, weed control and plant protection, harvesting, crop drying, insemination and simple animal care, milk cooling, advice in organising joint purchases of inputs and joint marketing of outputs, joint transport, and advice on bookkeeping systems.
Another area in which advisory assistance for small farms is needed, and which is of great importance for enabling those farmers to better themselves economically through their own efforts in the future, is assistance in the organisation of cooperatives for marketing, crop storage, input purchase, obtaining machinery services, and other functions. Equally, advice in needed on how to make the transition from cooperatives to joint stock companies. The recommendations of Chapter 6 in these respects should be implemented.
State support should also be provided for developing and introducing the technology suitable for small-scale production through training centres and enterprises concerned with the production and marketing of the corresponding inputs and equipment. This kind of support can be provided in coordination with special projects of applied research and the advisory services. In such a way, part of the start-up cost of enterprises serving small farms can be subscribed by the Government, through special loans and grants.
Public subsidies to subsistence farms should include paying the excise tax compensation directly to the service provider, releasing services from VAT, and the provision of production loans to these farms from the Agriculture and Rural Life Credit Fund.
It is very important to establish legislation through which the families working subsistence farms can use the services of the sick-fund and receive the dole in case the activities are stopped or sharply reduced. At the same time, full retirement benefits should go to subsistence farmers when they reach the appropriate age, and the procedures for obtaining social benefits should be simplified, so that all the persons who have a right to them can readily obtain them.
In all the programmes of support to subsistence farms it is important to distinguish between full-time farmers and hobby farmers. The latter should not qualify for the assistance. Part-time farmers of small plots who have low income and use farming as an essential supplement for their incomes should receive the assistance.
c) Unemployment Benefits and Other Social Compensation
It is a national priority to encourage the rural unemployed to seek jobs in new agricultural support enterprises and in other sectors. To a large degree the rural unemployed represent what formerly was excess employment on the State and collective farms and therefore their present condition of joblessness was directly brought about by the change of economic regime. While the State does not have a long-term responsibility for caring for these people, because individual initiative must be encouraged, there is a societal responsibility for assisting them partially in the transition to new employment situations. Labour force training, discussed in detail below, will be one of the main forms of providing this assistance. In addition, several other specific measures should be implemented, as follows:
For the alleviating the effects of the present situation of unemployment, the most fundamental and urgent requirement is that the support provided by labour market agency should be extended to people who have officially lost the status of unemployed. The official definition of unemployment needs to be broadened so that it reflects accurately the unemployment situation, rather than significantly understating it, as it does now. This will permit legitimate access to unemployment benefits by many persons who do not now receive them.
At the same time, the scale of the unemployment benefits should be kept fairly low, to avoid encouraging long-run dependence on them. A margin of flexibility should be given to local governments to raise those benefits somewhat for their localities, if they find it necessary for particular reasons.
Unemployment benefits, other social benefits, and reimbursements from accident insurance should be entirely exempt from income taxes.
In recognition of the distances that must be traveled to new jobs in rural areas, the costs of transport in seeking jobs and commuting to jobs from rural residences should be made deductible from income tax obligations. Exemptions for the usage of personal car from taxes should coincide the limits established by the Estonian Government.
In the financing of social support measures, it is necessary to provide sufficient credit from the national budget to local governments so that the benefits are paid in time even if local governments' budgets have not received enough funds by that moment.
Pensions and other social benefits should be paid up to four times a month, upon the request of the recipient.
Ensure that social benefits are paid to handicapped persons who are forced to give up their jobs because of the changing economic situation or who have been released from institutions for special care.
National government, local governments and business organisations should collaborate in establishing business rooms in each community, where information would be available on starting and managing businesses, marketing methods and market prospects, tax obligations, environmental obligations, other legal issues, and related subjects. In villages it also would be important to establish meeting rooms which could be used for a modest fee by those farmers and small entrepreneurs who need a place to convene business meetings but do not have their own offices.
Village Policy
The most important objective in this area is to restore more initiative and decision-making power to the villages. A basic prerequisite for this, as mentioned, is to provide them with the appropriate legal status and to allow devolution of more local responsibilities down to the village level Representatives of the village movement should participate in determining the nature of legislation for this purpose. State support also means financing the formulation of village development plans through participatory methods. Those villages which demonstrate the greatest interest in formulating their own plans and in contributing to their realisation, and the most ability to engender cooperation among their residents, should be rewarded with the greatest allocations of funding for improvement of infrastructure. If such a policy is followed for several years, villages which have been laggards or have internal conflicts will begin to realise the value of changing their ways and will become anxious to participate in the programme in a more genuine manner. The mechanism of requiring the development plans can be a way of ensuring that decisions concerning the development of a village are discussed with all interested parties beforehand.
The movement of “Kodukant” should be carried on and strengthened, thus supporting village life in general. A survey should be made about the structure of the movement, its activities and different forms in different villages and counties. (As a principal activity, the movement arranges Rural Days, which initally are channels for providing advisory services.) When villages and small towns acquire legal status, associations of such entities should be developed out of the movement “Kodukant,” so that the participants in the movement are not only its most enthusiastic supporters but also the authorised representatives of villages and small towns. Rural Days can then become a focal point of the activity of those associations.
Working groups and sub-commissions of the movement should be established more systematically for researching particular topics and setting up informational centres and campaigns. The Government recognises the movement as representative of villages and its members to participate in commissions, boards and meetings dealing with rural life. This relationship needs to be strengthened, to promote wider participation in formulating village development plans and in securing greater Government funding for carrying out those plans. The relationship can also be used for establishing horizontal linkages with other programmes, such as settlement programmes, “tiger's jump,” and Government-supported information centres. The villages which most merit support are those which have shown the most initiative in formulating and carrying out their development plans. Comparative experiences of villages should be disseminated in order to motivate the less active ones.
Every community should have rooms which are temporary residences that can be made available for visiting specialists, and highly required specialists until they can find the suitable living rooms themselves, and in. addition social flats (for people with little income), safety flats (for emergencies), care flats (where a person is taken care of by a social worker) and a refuge for homeless.
Family policy
The main concerns of family policy should include the welfare of a family and its members, their health and personal development, and their ability to cooperate usefully with the rest of the society. All family types should be in equal position and equally considered in all family policy measures. Those measures should be equally available in all regions. All family members should be viewed as equals from the viewpoint of family policy. Family policy supports the initiative of family members and assigns them responsibility for family welfare and development. Nevertheless, family policy must support the establishment of best possible upbringing environment for all children.
a) The Handicapped and Policies for Providing Care
The solution for the handicapped and mentally ill is to integrate them into society, and to raise the different forms of care-taking to the same level, both in the community and in the family. The handicapped should be encouraged to participate as fully as possible in the family, the activities of the care centre, or the community. What should be emphasised is not disabilities, but abilities and ways of developed and using skills.
National policy for the handicapped should encourage their employment in agriculture and other branches, relieving the salary paid to them partially or fully (depending on the handicap) from tax revenues. Another needed step is to increase the standard living space of invalids requiring special care (considering the need for wheelchairs, etc.) when considering the dwelling support.
Equally, the invalid pension should be increased to at least as much as the old-age pension, so that relatives could be interested in taking care of the invalids themselves instead of putting them into care houses at the expense of the national government or local governments. Every community should have a careflat where people having no relatives could come to receive regular care.
Communities should be able to pay people who take care of their relatives, acquaintances or neighbours. This payment should depend on the frequency, amount and quality of care. Care institutions of communities should monitor the situation of handicapped people living at home, to ensure that they get necessary training and that their living conditions meet the requirements.
Local care institutions are very important. They can deal with most disabilities (and also the elderly with no families) and some chronic diseases. They can play a crucial role in facilitating the transition of patients from long-term medical treatment back into reasonably normal life. Care centres should not be 100% filled, so that in emergencies it would be possible to place people there temporarily, at the cost of relatives or local governments.
Legislation should be developed to allow the financing of medical services offered by social workers (making injections, measuring the blood pressure) by sick funds. When taking into account the pension tenure the care period of invalids (including invalid group II) should also considered.
Regarding medical insurance for rural people, regulations should be amended to allow people who are not working to insure themselves voluntarily through sick funds. Transport expenses for obtaining medical care outside of one's home community should be covered by the sick fund.
b) Children
It is very important to try to ensure that children are raised in a family environment whenever possible. For this reason, it is important to ensure that the amount of unemployment benefits and other social benefits are made to depend on the family's average income per household member, independently of whether a father is present. Tying some benefits to single mothers has the perverse result of encouraging families in poverty to break up (sometimes fictitiously, sometimes in reality). To the contrary, they should be encouraged to stay together. This lesson has been learned in several countries (although it has not yet be applied in all those cases), and Estonia should not repeat the mistake of others. In other words, equal benefits should be provided to a family of mother, father and child with income of kr 300, as for a family of mother and child with an income of kr 200.
In addition, for Estonia's future it is vital to support middle class families with children and to link child-raising support with their attendance at school and, at a later age, starting to work.
Another keystone of family policy for children should be the provision of long-term building loans and mortgages for young families and families with many children, the collateral for which is a house or a flat. Part of such loans can be cancelled after the children graduate from secondary school and start working or go to college, as an incentive to educate children.
On the other hand, increasing the sums of childbirth benefits does not provide the expected effect: the number of children increases, but moreover the number of children from asocial (dysfunctional) families increases even more rapidly (as can be concluded from Paide experience in 1996). It is also not advisable to differentiate the kindergarten fee according to the parents' income. Those who would suffer most from such a step would be primarily families with moderate income, who could be willing and able to raise even more than one or two children if their means allowed it. Rich parents can use baby sitters and private kindergartens and basing such support on income does not concern them.
Taking care of orphans and children with no parental care should be a community-level responsibility. This would encourage communities to take an early interest in problem families and if necessary to identify where to place the children, whether with relatives, acquaintances, neighbours or adoptive parents. The national government must play an oversight role in this area, to ensure communities perform their functions properly, and to be prepared to prosecute communities on behalf of children who are not adequately treated. The national government also must take responsibility for persons who need institutional care but whose home communities cannot be identified.
Programmes should be developed to heighten the interest of older children in eventually staying in rural areas. Such programmes can include loans and grants for children of low-income families to finish rural high school (income-earning opportunities are deferred), and rural internships that are six-months to a year long for college students studying subjects like environmental sciences, agriculture, forestry, water management, fisheries, geology, sociology, political science, economics, accounting, medicine and law.
c) The Elderly
The principal material and physical problems of elderly people are connected with poverty or physical impairment resulting from old age, so they should be provided the kinds of support measures mentioned elsewhere in this Chapter. Problems of a more psychological or social nature include too little communication with others and a lack of sufficient activities after their children have become independent. To overcome these problems elderly people should be brought into social activities, their organisations should be supported and special events should be organised for them. Local governments play the main role in this regard, especially villages, and they will need financial support from the national government for that purpose.
Pension reform linking pensions with the years worked and the salary received must be completed as soon as possible. Draft laws are under consideration that should solve major problems in this area, but it is important to modify the drafts so that periods worked on household plots (subsistence farms) are considered in calculating social insurance benefits.
d) Alcoholism and Drug Usage
Alcoholism generally can be eliminated by discovering and getting rid of its underlying causes. The treatment of alcoholics depends on the willingness of themselves and their acquaintances, and on their behavior. The national and local governments can take steps in regulating sales of alcohol, publicising alcohol-related problems, and supporting the activities and treatment of alcoholics anonymous. Special attention should be given to alcoholic parents.
The national and local governments should more forcefully regulate the advertising of alcohol check how the regulations are followed. Police must provide local governments with the relevant information.
The theme of a heaJthy lifestyle must be incorporated into school programmes, using positive role models who convey the message that the biggest chances to become successful lie in not using alcohol and drugs. The attitude that using alcohol and drugs is a question of personal taste is not correct. Rural regions have better preconditions for handling this problem because mechanisms of social control still work better there. At the same time it should be taken into account that several regions have few local positive role models, as the more active and successful people have moved away Local governments need to share experiences and support each other's programmes in this area. Alcohol and drug abuse are problems that know no boundaries.
Education
The efforts to develop national standards and ensure their application in all parts of the country should be continued. Measures should be taken so that all children receive equal shares of national.and local administrative and support and even the children living in the smallest settlements and villages can attend schools in the same area. The cooperation of local administrations is needed to increase support for kindergartens and schools that combine basic education with child care. Private initiative for such schools and child care at home should be supported as well. Institutional mechanisms need to be strengthened to facilitate constructive pressure from the local populations, especially parents of school-age children, on local administrations. A policy of minimising the closing of small rural schools should be adopted, given the importance of children attending school close to home. In addition, for families living in more remote rural areas, where in spite of this policy children have to travel significant distances to continue their education, a policy of compensation for those travel costs (distance coefficients) should be developed.
The national government should support local governments in carrying out a programme of loans for local students to attend high school and university, with the provision that part of the loan will be cancelled if the student subsequently returns to his or her home area to work. Additional training of teachers should be financed on a larger scale, as a national priority., and a programme of special incentives should be developed to encourage well-qualified teachers to staff the more remote rural schools, for rotating periods of a few years each.
Computers should be brought to every school; schools should be connected into computer network. Computers should be used in everyday teaching as much as possible, not only for mastering computer literacy. Teachers of all the subjects should also learn how to use computers for teaching their subject, and the corresponding programmes and software should be developed.
Rural gymnasiums should consider specific features of rural life and the characteristics of their regions when compiling teaching programmes. There should be greater concentration on occupational education. Like basic schools, high schools should strive to be general cultural and social centres of the region, and they should offer continuing education.
b) Technical Vocational Education and Training
The system of occupational education as a whole should be reformed and updated. It should be integrated with the rest of educational system in the sense that the training areas offered should enable people to continue with further training, if they wish and can do so.
Specialities, occupations and professions being taught should be useful at this moment and also in-the future, that is, they should coincide with the requirements of the labour market, and they should be dynamic and flexible enough, taking into consideration changes in society and economy. The highest level of vocational education should concern the training of a new generation of lecturers. This should happen in cooperation between different colleges and universities. At the same time continuing professional training, refresher courses, and vocational education of adults should be basic components of the programme.
Oganisations of employers and employees should also participate in the process of organisation of vocational education. Professional certificates should be issued by a professional organisation, not by a teaching institution. Employers should also offer some material support to labour education. In order to ensure active and meaningful participation of employers and labour unions, a National Council for Technical Education and Training should be formed, with representatives from employers' associations, labour unions, and the Ministries of Education, Economy and Agriculture. This council should be given a mandate to design vocational education programmes and monitor their performance and require improvements if the performance is not satisfactory. Also, mechanisms should be found to permit employers to make financial contributions to the training programmes, since that is the best way to elicit from them a real interest in the programmes. This recommendation would require new legislation and fundamental institutional changes, but it represents the best way to achieve the needed improvements in vocational education. The course offerings of all the educational establishments should be coordinated in the same system of vocational education.
Vocational education establishments giving agricultural education have to consider the fact that perspectives of traditional agricultural activities will be even smaller in the future. As rural population will be looking for alternative options, teaching institutions specialising in agricultural education should also be reoriented, taking into account the broader perspectives of rural life as well as new aspects of agriculture such as quality control and ecological cultivation. Instead of agriculture alone the programmes should be oriented toward the rural economy. If vocational training is organised in accordance with regional needs, the probability that the specialities being taught correspond to changing requirements of labour market will also be greater. Regional studies on that topic have proved this statement.
Labour education establishments of rural areas, also establishments of agricultural education should expand their profiles. They should become educational and cultural centres that offer continuing adult education, advice, and other information in addition to basic vocational education.
Up to now most of the funding meant for adult training has been spent on re-training of unemployed people. It would be correct to use this money also for preventing unemployment by providing refresher courses for employees.
Many establishments offering labour education are being financed by the Government. Many nationally accepted municipal training centres and colleges also get their funding from the government. The size of the last group is decreasing all the time. Funds for training teachers have been decreasing and make up only 1% of the budget for wages; in accordance to legislation concerning adult training this should be at least 3% of budget for wages (in spite of teaching programmes being reformed, which requires extensive additional training of teachers). Some forms of vocational education can apply for support from different foundations (for example, through ETKA “Andras”). PHARE funding is also very important, as they are supporting reforms of professional education.
Private firms take care of funding their own training themselves. In addition, through the proposed National Council on Technical Vocational Education and Training, they can make contributions to national training programmes in their fields of interest.
As education is a process, the effect of which becomes apparent only after some time, it is very difficult to say something about the profitability for the recipient. In the case of vocational education the results are seen sooner. This is the reason why innovative employers are willing to invest in the training of employees. Here the profitability can be measured by increased efficiency and quality, better work attitudes, retention of personnel, etc.
For some forms of vocational education students and interested organisations are willing to pay themselves, especially if they are dealing with national or public establishments that offer training that improve a person's competitiveness in the labour market (training concerning legislation, economic training, management training, languages, computer sciences, etc.). Such training will be always profitable for a private company. The situation in regard to the training of teachers is completely different. Profitability issues of agricultural education are also rather complicated, as a large share of the target group has little or no purchasing power. This means that public funding is important, at least for an extended transition period until the recovery of the agricultural sector is well underway.
Among the immediate steps to improve vocational education in rural areas, it is necessary to prolong and extend PHARE project. At the present moment this involves 13 schools and the project should be extended to other schools. Vocational education reforms and the PHARE project should be synchronised.
Educational institutions, those offering vocational education included, shouldn't be liquidated just on the basis of short-term economising. A long-term view is needed. There should be centres of vocational and continuing education in every county and their planned capacity should be scaled to the size of the local population. This should be coordinated at the levels of both national and local administrations.
To guarantee new generations of teachers and lecturers we need to develop and initiate correspondence training programmes. This is especially important for colleges and universities, the Agricultural University included.
The national government should continue to finance vocational education establishments even after they have been transferred to the control of local or regional administrations, but such financing should follow the plans of the proposed National Council on Technical Vocational Education and Training. When discussing financing, integral solutions should get a preference, for example, financing development projects of a company or regional vocational education development projects as a whole. Not only expenditures on construction and purchase of equipment and apparatus should be considered as investments, but also the training of people, or human capital.
Finally, when developing vocational education and professional requirements and profiles, we should take into consideration requirements, regulations, and legal acts that are being followed all over the world, especially in Europe.
Principal Issues and Constraints Affecting the Sector
a) Capacity, Quotas and Sustainability
The annual capacity of the Estonian fishing fleet is 70,000–80,000 tons, and the capacity has been fully utilised at times in the past. The quota for the main Estonian fish species (Baltic herring + sprat + cod) is about 110–120 thousand tons. As the coastal fishermen cannot catch much more than 12–15 tons, in order to fulfill the quota the fishing fleet would have to catch about 100–110 thousand tons. This would mean increasing the catching intensity about 20–30 thousand tons.
On the other hand, Estonia's fishing capacity (the number of fishing vessels, boats and fishermen) now exceeds the fish resources available at least for some species. In addition to that, most of the fishing vessels and boats are quite old and considerable investments would be needed just to keep the fishing capacity at the present level. Both these factors point toward a reduction in capacity.
Present surveillance and control capabilities for enforcing fishing rules and respect for quotas are insufficiently developed. The base of statistical support for fisheries management also is weak and insufficiently computerised for its expected uses.
While stocking programmes for lake fisheries have grown, they are still inadequate and costly.
b) Fishing Ports
The number of fishing ports is decreasing, and many of them are in deteriorated condition, especially the smaller ones. There is a lack of means to maintain and manage these ports. The fishermen expect the State to carry out the often expensive works of reconstructing the ports.
c) Environmental Concerns
The seals are often mentioned as the main problem the fishermen face. They not only damage the nets, but also they frighten away the fish and empty gear nets. The compensation mechanism, worked out by the Government, is clumsy and time-consuming.
River-borne effluents have damaged the reproductive capacity of some coastal fishing grounds and in lakes.
d) Local Governments
Fisheries management on the county government level is currently not very efficient. As well as holding back the development of the fisheries sector, this weakness also impedes the development of integrated plans for coastal management. In the long run, some coastal areas will not be able to continue their past and present dependence on fisheries, so integrated development programmes, which would involve fisheries, agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, tourism and other activities, should be formulated with the active participation of local populations. Local governments should guide this process, and to do so their capabilities of managing resources and infrastructure need to be strengthened.
c) International Cooperation
For the time Estonia joins the EU our fishery should be at the same level with it in terms of the quality of fish, the fleet and its equipment, and also be able to fulfill the quota we have at that time. The is also a need to amend the Fishery Act in force in order to harmonise the Estonian fisheries legislation with the provisions of the EU's Coimmon Fisheries Policy. The main problem for Lake Peipsi, the fact that there is no common strategy between Estonia and Russia for fisheries management.
The Competitiveness of the Fisheries Sector
As Chapter 2 has shown, the sector has the potential to be competitive, but it is hampered by the fact that the Estonian Baltic Sea fishing fleet is generally old. As a consequence:
The main machines take too much fuel in spite of their little output and are forced to work overcharged.
The fleet often needs repairs and spare parts. The ships need too many crew members.
The work decks are too small and open to mount separators, and the holds are too small for working and disposing fish.
The steel of which the hull is built does meet the shipbuilding requirements and is very rusted. Therefore expensive and frequent hull repairs are needed.
All these factors make the cost of the fish harvest too high and lowers the ability of the Estonian fleet to compete on the international market.
Estonian fishing policy's main economic goal should be to reduce the cost and increase the quality. To better the quality the fish has to be sorted, cooled with ice and packaged right after being caught at sea. To reduce the cost the best strategy would be to modernise the existing fleet as follows:
Replace aged boats with more modern ones which consume less fuel and require smaller crews and would have enough space to mount the machinery needed to increase the product's quality. At the same time the price would have to be reasonable for the ship owners.
Modernise the old ships that have not worn out yet, of which the most expensive part would be the replacement of the main engines .
The obstacle to achieving this modernisation is the poverty of our fishermen and shipowners. At present market prices of fish it has not been possible for the fishermen to gather enough money to buy a new boat. Also it is not possible to get loans because they would be large in relation to the fishermen's payment capacity, even with low interest rates. Right now the only possibility would be to buy ships 15 years old or more which would be able to work 5 more years without having to spend exceptional sums on repairing them. By that time the fisherman would have to be capable of buying a new ship, of course with a loan, preferably at low interest rates. An ideal solution would be to lease ships from the EU for up to 10 years.
Estonia has a shipyard that would be able to modernise the existing boats and build new ones; there could be up to 8 ships in dry dock at the same time. But the fishermen and the shipyard lack enough money to start in this direction. For the owners it is economical to modernise only the MRTK-Baltica and MKRTM-Laukava type ships.
The processing industry does not want unsorted fish and forces the fishermen with the low prices. The fishermen lack the separators and the means to get them. But the processor has started to buy sorted fish from outside. The same situation is with the cooling (ice machine) . The ports cannot get or buy the ice but the processor does not think of it as his problem.
Loans for exports and for fishfood purchases are needed for larger producers. Every fifth fisherman is interested in borrowing money. However, often they lack the guarantees demanded by banks or they think that fishing is not profitable enough to be able to pay back the loan.
Although the fishing and fish processing sectors have fared somewhat better than agriculture since-4991, nevertheless their economic conditions have deteriorated. In part this situation is attributable to the same macroeconomic problems that affect agriculture and agro-industry, which are reviewed in Chapters 2 and 4 of this Strategy. Because of cost-price relationships, profitability in much of the sector is low, and this makes it more difficult to attract the capital necessary for improving productivity.
While these problems of fishermen can be identified, it should be added that there is insufficient knowledge in a systematic form of the economic problems of fishermen and the social and economic problems of fishing communities.
The main problems of the fish-processing industry are currently the following:
Machines and equipment, basically originating from the previous Soviet Union are badly depreciated, and productivity is low.
Hygienic and sanitary standards of EU are not yet met by the production processes. There does not yet exist an adequate framework for quality control in the industry.
Most of the production capacity is used to turn out products that have demand only on the Eastern (ex-Soviet) market.
The financial situation of the companies is characterised by the lack of working capital. Bank interest rates are too high for the industry.
Production is uneconomical and too big a volume of waste is produced.
Regulations of the Estonian Food Act have not yet been developed for fish processing.
Education and Science
There have been difficulties in restructuring the national fisheries education system and harmonising it with the requirements of a market economy. There is also a need to widen the scope of and to improve the quality of fisheries research (including research in fisheries management and economics) and the funding of the fisheries science. Funding for fisheries research has declined, and it is vital for the industry, especially fish stock assessments. Socio-economic studies of fishing communities also are very much needed to assist the planning process.
Policy Objectives for Fisheries
The aim of the Estonian fisheries strategy is to create the framework for sustainable development of the Estonian fisheries sector proceeding from Estonian natural preconditions and national interests. The strategy is focused on how the sustainable contribution of the sector to economic welfare could be improved In this connection, the following objectives are considered important:
maintaining a high quality coastal and marine environment, protecting of valuable species and biodiversity, conserving of critical habitats, restoring of damaged fisheries ecosystems;
supporting an integrated and balanced development of the coastal fisheries contributing to the restoration of the coastal communities and their culture;
adjusting the capacity of the distant water and Baltic fishing fleets to the fish resources available, developing energy-and resource-saving coastal and inland fisheries and fish farming;
developing the Estonian fish market and fish quality management, promoting the Estonian fish trade and export;
developing national fish resource management and a surveillance system;
developing fisheries science;
supporting the transfer of know-how and fisheries information exchanges;
promoting the public awareness through environmental and fisheries education and training;
9) developing international fisheries cooperation. Policy Recommendations
a) Fisheries Management
To achieve the goals of the Estonian Strategy for Fisheries the Action Plans 2002 and 2010 should be elaborated in necessary details and implemented on the state level. The main tasks of the Action Plans are:
to complete the restructuring and harmonisation of the Estonian fisheries sector with provisions of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy;
to ensure the integration of fisheries into Estonian coastal area management;
to defend the interest of the fisheries sector in negotiations when dealing with cross-sectoral issues.
Regarding the excess fishing capacity, the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Environment should elaborate and implement within the framework of the Estonian Fisheries Management Plan a policy for restructuring the national fishing industry, including the relevant legislation and economic incentives to:
balance the national fishing capacity with the fish resources available, and
upgrade the Estonian fishing fleet.
Also, success in managing the restructuring of the Estonian fishing industry in one of the important preconditions for the harmonisation of the Estonian fishery sector with the provisions of the EU Common Fisheries Policy.
In order to achieve these goals, it is important to take into account the fact that most families involved in coastal fishing are fairly poor. A solution to this fundamental problem of excess fishing capacity could start from the additional fact that the right of these families to fish in Estonian waters was implicitly recognised by policy many years ago, in some cases decades ago. Under present environmental policy, the State has a right and obligation to license and control the rate of exploitation of natural resources, including fish stocks. Although the licensing policy should be formalised, in effect, fishermen now have a “historical license” to fish even if it does not take explicit form.
In light of these considerations, in order to balance fishing capacity with sustainable levels of fish stocks, the State could initiate a programme of “buying back” fishing rights from fishermen. The payments associated with such a purchase of rights (even if they are implicit rights) would then assist fishing families to start new economic activities, whether in their coastal villages o elsewhere. At the same time, those payments would have the effect of reducing capacity in the fishing sector, thus permitting achievement of the goal of sustainable management of the resource. Since several countries of Europe stand to benefit from achieve of sustainable management of fish stocks, it may be possible to obtain international support for financing this type of programme.
Another component of the programme, which would be of absolute importance, would be to renegotiate reduced quotas internationally. If Estonia's unfulfilled quotas were to be exploited by other nations, then the reduction of national fishing capacity would not have the desired effect of promoting sustainability of fish stocks.
Fishermen's associations should play a more active role in informing their membership and the general public of the importance of sustainable management of fish stocks.
To support this programme, surveillance and control capabilities need to be improved by promoting cooperation between the different institutions responsible (sea inspection, border guards, police) and to develop better public awareness concerning the sustainable use of fisheries resources. International cooperation in the field of fisheries surveillance should be strengthened as well.
The sector's statistical base needs improvement so that it can give stronger support to the management function. A modern fish resources management and control system is needed. The computer network and corresponding software delivered through the technical assistance programme of the Swedish Government could be used for that purpose.
The main immediate tasks in the area of restocking are:
to complete the reconstruction of the state owned Põlula Fish Rearing Center;
to elaborate and implement the long term restocking programme up to 2002.
b) Fishing Ports
To halt the decline in the number of fishing ports and to fund their maintenance, efforts should be made to awaken county governments' possible interest in participating in sharing the expenses of the maintenance and management of those ports. In some areas that are especially dependent on fisheries for sustaining the local economy, a large part of the local population could benefit, directly and indirectly, from preventing port closures, so support of this nature from local governments would be quite rational in the circumstances.
c) Environmental Problems
The issue of the damage from the seals has both technical and economic dimensions. On the technical side, there needs to be greater cooperation between scientists, fishermen's associations, and Government in seeking viable solutions. Also, international experience on this issue should be studied carefully. In regard to the economic dimension, the Government needs to ensure that fishermen receive adequate and timely compensation for the damages caused by seals, since environmental regulations prevent fishermen from defending themselves from this problem.
Fortunately, water pollution is being reduced through the initiation of operations of additional wastewater treatment plants. However, much remains to be done in this area, and it is important to carry out the programme recommended in Chapter 7.
d) Local Governments
In order to improve the effectiveness of county governments in fisheries management, it is necessary to increase the cooperation and exchange of information between the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Environment and the county governments. Also, the Estonian Fisheries Council should carry out an evaluation of problems in fisheries management at the county government level and develop possible solutions and promote wider discussions of fisheries policy.
In some of the most fisheries-dependent areas in Estonia (Baltic islands, the Peipsi Lake area), the economic and social situation is critical enough that special economic support and incentives should be provided through regional development programmes.
e) International Cooperation
Within the framework of Estonia's accession to the EU and in accordance with the corresponding harmonisation schedule, all necessary amendments of Estonian fisheries legislation should be made. In addition, efforts should be continued to reach agreements with Russia on fisheries management in Lake Peipsi.
The Competitiveness of the Fisheries Sector
To start modernising the trawling ships it is necessary to replace the MRTK-Baltica main engines, for which purpose we should:
Nationalise one MRTK type boat with a comparatively good hull.
Replace its main engine in one from EU shipyards (with the presence of Estonian specialists), or in the Tallinn Fish Yard.
Use the modernised boat for teaching purposes, offering companies that produce electronics and fishing gear to demonstrate their products at work.
The boat should be on an optimal fishing regime for a maximum time, to give a possibility to get acquainted with it to the ship owners and fishermen.
Plan cooperation between that ship and fish scientists, inspectors charged with protecting fish stocks, and naturally the school of navigation.
It is essential to find ways to attract the capital investments that are necessary not only to modernise the fleet but also to improve productivity and quality control in the processing industry. For this, a necessary prior condition is improving cost-price relationships in the sector so that profitability increases. Therefore it is inescapable to review the macroeconomic options described in Chapter 2.
If the plan of direct payments to producers is chosen from among those options, then it will be important to extend the plan to include payments per boat, in addition to the payments per hectare and per cow to farmers, where such payments are scaled to the size of the boat. Also, the capitalisation option described in that chapter, under which a single larger payment is received instead of smaller annual payments, would be especially useful for fishermen, because it would allow them to purchase new equipment.
A plan of this nature is compatible with the proposal mentioned above to “buy back” the fishing rights from some of the fishermen, thereby reducing the sector's capacity somewhat.
The fishing and fish-processing sectors also support the recommendations of agro-industry (Chapter 4) for implementing a modest, relatively uniform tariff system. It is important to make the better use of the export support facilities provided by the Estonian Ministries of Finance, Economics and Agriculture. The Estonian Fisheries Association should develop a campaign to explain to its members how this may be done.
The Fish-Processing Industry
The Estonian Ministry of Agriculture is developing and harmonising with the EU relevant regulations the Estonian Food Act related legislation (e.g. EU White Paper). As a part of that activity the required regulations for fish processing and handling will be elaborated and implemented. The Estonian Fish Processors Association is invited to participate in this work.
Education and Science
A programme should be undertaken to provide additional education and training (seminars, study tours) to the specialists involved in the restructuring of the State's fisheries education system, and to provide additional State's financial support for strengthening the corresponding teaching facilities. Also, it is necessary to review the Estonian fisheries research programs and corresponding funding of the fisheries science in order to ïmprove the future planning of the fisheries research, and to start immediately with the studies in the field of fisheries management economics in Estonia.
Issues and Constraints
a) Forestry
Estonian forests have in recent times been characterised by a constant decrease in felling intensity. During 1991–1995 the average amount of marketable timber made up only 1.06% of the growing stock. In countries with developed forestry (Sweden, Finland) felling intensity reaches 2.5–3,0%. The moderate figures of Estonia have a historical background: areas covered with forest have expanded nearly 2.2 times during the last 50 years. Nearly half of this additional forest land was formerly not covered with trees and now has youngish stands growing, and it has conditioned the relative decrease in final fellings. The development plan of the Estonian forest complex for 1991–2020 refers to 3500.0 thousand scm as the mean annual felling volume (1991–1995). Of this only 80 1% was fulfilled. The fact that actual fellings lag behind the volumes forecast is partly caused by the various cutting restrictions established for the period of the land reform. At the same time, another relevant factor is the fact that environmental protection interests are convinced that they can perform their task of protecting forests better the longer the forests keep growing. Therefore, the area of forests where all forestry work is forbidden has begun to grow considerably in recent years.
Total Area of Estonian Forest Stands and Volume of Growing Stock
| Year | 1940 | 1958 | 1975 | 1983 | 1988 | 1991 | 1993 |
| Area of forest stands (1.000 ha) | 853 | 1312 | 1656 | 1812 | 1816 | 1915 | 1920 |
| Total volume of growing stock (million m3) | 108 | 135 | 196 | 237 | 260 | 270 | 275 |
In addition to the areas indicated in the table, we have 100,000–200,000 ha (officially 136,000 ha) of overgrown thicket areas and around 240,000 ha of natural grasslands which are in the process of becoming overgrown. It can therefore be forecast that the use of at least 300,000 ha of land will have to be restructured. The most likely means of development is natural and, to a lesser extent, induced afforestation of such areas.
Forestry is closely interlinked with agriculture, industry, energy, the environment and other critical areas. It is therefore essential that the formulation of forest policies be conducted as a consultative process involving all relevant parties, including the Government, the private sector, and non-governmental organisations. This process should aim at building a working consensus on the principles and issues of forest management.
To accomplish the above, and to achieve the necessary separation of operational management from policy and regulatory functions, the institutional and organisational structure for managing forests should be reviewed. Under the present arrangements the Forestry Department (FD) is responsible for both the extensive commercial operations of State forests and the overall policy and forest resource management functions relating to both State and privately owned forests. Given the prominence of commercial objectives in the management of State forests, additional conflicts of interest may emerge since both private forest owners and the FD will be major (and potentially competing) players in the various wood markets.
In the framework of research done by the Estonian Forestry Development Programme it has become evident that the associations of forest owners are weak. Twelve different associations and unions have joined the Estonian Association of Private Forests and currently represent the interests of approximately 250 members.
The provision of technical and commercial services to private forest owners will initially rely on the emerging forest owners' organisations and the establishment of a supportive State organisation. Forest owners' organisations should eventually become self-sustaining units without the need for public financing, as their members' knowledge and skills increase. In the interim, these organisations could be provided with partial State funding to ensure that they have adequate skills and that they provide more comprehensive outreach among forest owners.
A special issue related to private forestry is the average woodlot size. It is likely that the average size will remain small, around 10 ha, and that there will be 80–100,000 forest owners in Estonia. The large number of such owners has a social value in that it improves income distribution and indicates broad participation in a major economic activity. On the other hand, the small average size of the lots increases the costs of forest management and harvesting and may reduce the bargaining power of the owners, unless they form marketing cooperatives.
b) Water
The main concerns for water management are: a) the general state of disrepair of much of the drainage system, b) the lack of institutional development and funding arrangements that are adequate to guarantee continued proper maintenance of the system, and c) the possibility that a revival of agricultural activity could bring a recurrence of the high levels of agricultural water pollution that occurred in the past.
.In order to maintain drainage systems at the current level it is necessary:
to increase the pace of land reform so that every piece of land would have an owner;
to set up land amelioration societies to maintain and repair drainage systems;
to organise continual monitoring of areas drained by the Land Amelioration Bureaus;
to add the maintenance and repair of open channels to the State budget;
to ensure that institutions of scientific learning should give recommendations for the implementation of optimal maintenance technology;
to organise study for specialists of land amelioration societies in the realisation such maintenance work;
to find resources for reconstruction and repair of drainage systems.
Major constraints that currently hamper the full realisation of these steps include the incomplete nature of the land reform and its legislative framework (see Chapter 3); the lack of sufficient farmer training and institutional development in farming communities in regard to the kind of cooperation among diverse kinds of farms that is necessary for the organisation and management of land amelioration societies; and the lack of sufficient funding at the national level for restoration of deteriorated drainage systems.
Policy Objectives
a) Forestry
The Estonian forest policy recognizes that Estonian forests have high environmental and ecological values in terms of species biodiversity and landscape, natural stand structure, etc. Certain ecosystems may even have global significance. This value will be protected in compliance with the international agreements the Estonian Government is committed to. On the other hand, the Forest Policy is underpinned by the notion that the Estonian forest sector has high capacity to provide material and social benefits, and that the utilisation of this potential will be encouraged to the extent-that other values and benefits are not lost or reduced. Thirdly, it is considered imperative that the action taken today does not reduce the amount and range of benefits available to future generations.
The policy objectives for the Estonian forestry sector are:
To achieve sustainability of forestry activities, which is considered to require the management and utilisation of forests and land in a manner and at a rate which maintains their biological diversity, productivity, capacity for regeneration, and vitality as well as their potential, both at present and in the future, to fulfill ecological, economic and social functions at local, national and global levels without damaging other ecosystems.
To achieve efficiency in forest management, which entails securing both more efficient primary production and more effective utilisation of valuable forest-based products and services.
Following the re-independence of Estonia in 1991 and the passing of the Forest Act in 1993, the more specific defined objectives of policy have been:
To guarantee the sustainable utilisation of forests, determining the most appropriate utilisation method for each stand, but at the same time managing these forests in a manner which will not preclude other ways of utilisation in the future, should they become appropriate also.
To manage at least 20% of the forests as protected or protection forests, on the basis of their particular importance from the environmental protection, esthetical, cultural, historical and scientific points of view.
To implement as cheap methods of forest management as possible, using clearfelling as the principal method of final felling and carrying out shelterwood cuttings and selective cuttings only in such places where forest as a life environment must be continually preserved (mainly in protected and protection forests, but also in small private forests).
To reduce planting in clear-cut areas, leaving more space than was common in the past for the natural regeneration of birch, ash and other deciduous trees; to increase the cultivation of deciduous and mixed stands because of economic and environmental considerations; and to end the planting of purely coniferous stands on former arable land.
To guarantee the optimum proportion between the volumes of timber obtained in the course of final and improvement fellings (ca 2:1) and to carry out improvement cuttings only in the case of unavoidable silvicultural needs, also taking into account the commercial aspect of these cuttings as well as the aspects connected with protection of the environment.
To consider the stability and good sanitary conditions of forests to be especially important, ensuring this by strict observance of forest protection requirements and by silvicultural means (choosing the tree species for cultivation in accordance with site conditions, using natural regeneration more extensively, enriching the composition of species in the stands, reducing the number of wild animals).
To stimulate the enterprising spirit of forest owners (including the State forest districts as the representatives of the forest owner) in using forests in every possible way, thus maintaining a high employment level in the villages and preserving rural life and extra income for the population and the forest owner. (See Chapter 6 on this topic.)
To assist in the development of private forestry, in the uniting, counseling and training of private forest owners, in coordinating their cooperation, and to help them directly by means of State forestry programmes. The latter must include all the forest owners and develop into the main lever of implementing State forest policy. •
To work out a taxation policy (prices, taxes, duties, stumpage fees, etc.) which would enhance the interest in forestry, above all among local businessmen, and guarantee its competitiveness.
b) Water
The overall objectives for water management for agriculture are:
To restore drainage systems to fully functioning condition.
To ensure their continuing maintenance at adequate levels.
To avoid a return to the unmanageable levels of water pollution caused by agriculture in the past.
The strategy for drainage maintenance work until 1999 must take into consideration the fact that not all agricultural land will have a use in the near future. Therefore some of drained land will have to be afforested. It is practical to omit insufficiently drained peat land (26,200 ha) and areas of light mineral soil (49,000 ha) from agricultural use. This means that substantial repairs and costly reconstruction work will no longer be a problem in these areas. In areas of insufficiently drained heavy mineral soil (19,200 ha), costly reconstruction could be replaced by repairs enabling the areas to be brought to the requisite standard for use grasslands.
Further savings could possibly be made by planning repair and reconstruction work on older land amelioration systems in a programme for the next five years so that the rate of depreciation for systems less than 20 years old is 3–5% per year. For older systems, the equivalent rate would be 2.5–3 times greater. Of the currently used systems, 31% of them have been in use since before 1975. This could be the starting point for the compilation of programme for minimising maintenance work. If it is possible to realise the minimum programme, then by the end of century 2,900 ha will remain insufficiently drained, 175,300 ha will be satisfactorily drained and 389,600 ha will be well drained.
Policy Recommendations
a) Forestry
It is necessary to formulate and implement a programme for the restructuring of the utilisation (afforestation) of land not used for agricultural production. The lead institutions in developing the programme should be above all the Ministry of Agriculture and the Forestry Board of the Ministry of the Environment but also private forest owners and representatives of forestry and social organisations and local governments. The programme should enable departmental disagreements or friction to be subdued in the name of a common objective. It may be observed that it is currently politically difficult to speak to agricultural leaders about the afforestation of agricultural land and that the Forestry Board maintains that its task is only to deal with woodlands already in existence. In the initial version of the national forestry policy compiled within the framework of the Estonian Forestry Development Programme there is the following paragraph:
“Afforestation programmes will be compiled for areas no longer used for agricultural production and also for artificial landscapes. Afforestation will be implemented in those areas where any other method of land utilisation would produce less prosperity for society, hereby taking into consideration both the values of environmental protection and the social values of the forest, such as biological diversity, landscape conservation and possibilities for the population to spend their holidays.”
The changes should be carried out by using different methods of land taxation, thereby creating stimuli for the establishment of forest cultures compared to leaving land uncultivated and overgrown.
It is necessary to advise and help private forest owners at several levels from simple guides for planting forests through to state subsidies. An assistance system for private owners and farmers via forest owners' organisations should be a priority.
Above all, it is essential that State lands under afforestation programmes either be privatised or subject to long-term contracts for timber planting, management and harvesting.
Specific recommendations are as follows:
In order to ensure the maintenance of the high environmental and ecological value of Estonian forests and to raise awareness of their significance, an inventory assessing the value of all present and potential conservation areas should be carried out. Criteria for defining forest categories will be reviewed. Special attention will be paid to conserving old-growth forests and/or developing appropriate management regimes for areas of particularly high value. Additional resources will be provided for developing the methods of uneven-aged forest management and for putting them into practice.
To ensure that the planned intensification of forest management will not endanger sustainability and to satisfy the requirements of the wood market, the present system of environmental planning and monitoring should be improved. Additional budgetary funds should be allocated for that purpose.
To conserve valuable ecosystems and to maintain forest biodiversity the size of strictly protected areas will gradually be increased to at least 4% of total forest area. This will also help to expand the area of old growth forests under protection, to improve the representativeness of conservation areas, and to establish large, contiguous conservation sites. The area of multifunctional forests with light restrictions on cuttings (present categories of kaitsemetsad, hoiumetsad) will be maintained at its current level (approximately 15%).
The basis for awarding rights (concessions) for timber cutting on State forest lands should be modified, to promote more interest in afforestation on the part of the concessionaire companies and to guarantee more stable supplies of raw material to the wood processing industry. For timber concessions of more than a specified minimum acreage, the concession length should be at least 80 years and as long a 120 years, depending on the predominant species. Such timber concessions all should be awarded at competitive bidding, and they should be subject to cancellation at any time if the concessionaire does not follow the management plan approved by the Forest Department.
In the initial phase, the principal policy instruments will be strengthening of public administration and the improvement of public services for private forest owners. Regulations regarding forest management should focus on the length of timber concessions in State forests, the bidding process for awarding them, and the corresponding management plans.
The average size of forest holdings created through the restitution process is relatively small. To increase economic efficiency in forest management, the establishment of larger management units will be promoted through planning land use and by encouraging the cooperation among private forest owners.
All forest owners should be provided with forest management plans so as to promote the rational use of forest resources. '
The land and forest taxation system must be improved. Exempting young stands from taxes would guarantee stimuli for the afforestation of clearings and land not in agricultural use.
By means of regulating the taxation system, the use of local bio-fuels should be encouraged, particularly in terms of using wood available from fine undergrowth as fuel. Firewood should be exempt from sales tax, or a contamination tax (energy tax) should be added to fossil fuels.
The basic premise for the policy on forest industries is to allow the open market economy and free competition to guide sector development. The policy is focused on creating a suitable institutional environment enabling the emergence and strengthening of private forest industries contributing to the expansion of the Estonian economy, supporting regional development and preventing the emergence of monopolistic markets.
The State should provide temporary support to private forestry through forest owners' organisations. The principal criterion for allocating support will be the efficiency of these organisations in carrying out their activities. In the longer run, State support for such private organisations is not appropriate, so it should be phased out after 5 years, which is enough time for them to become well established.
Public funding should be targeted on forest management planning, extension services, and forest protection. The State should exercise quality control on the extension service and, initially, provide training for extension agents. As private forestry is an integral part of the regional economy, additional funding for public support will be sought from regional development programs.
The restitution process will be supported with a view to promoting active land utilisation.
A precondition for achieving the abovementioned aims is a radical reorganisation of education, development activities and research work. At the same time the main stress must be placed on forest ecology and, in addition to that, on the issues of forestry economics, planning, legislation and forest-friendly equipment and technology, simultaneously taking into account the needs of both large-scale forestry based on State property and those of small-scale forestry based on private property (above all, farms).
Owing to the large area of state forests, public forest administration will play a key role in the future development of the forest sector. Prompt definition of an appropriate institutional structure is a prerequisite for developing the entire forest sector. Consideration should be given to locating the Forest Department in the Ministry of Agriculture, because its present location in the Ministry of Environment creates a potential conflict of interest between the aims of production and environmental protection.
Following the logic of the discussion in Chapter 6, small portions of unclaimed forest land and State forest land should be donated to counties, for their management in accordance with local economic and social objectives. Activities permitted in those “county forests” would include gathering fuelwood, limited cutting for local construction, recreation (hiking, skiing, gathering berries and mushrooms), and educational activities. The national government, through the Forest Department, should provide technical assistance and training to local governments in the management of such forests. International technical cooperation may play a role in this regard as well.
b) Water
Under all development scenarios, guidelines for water management should take the following as starting points:
Water is an invaluable natural resource at both local and global level and it should be kept as clean as possible and used sparingly. At the same time water is one of the most essential landscape-ecological factors, the wide-ranging regulation of which needs corresponding analysis and the balancing out of all land utilisation requirements including those of natural and environmental protection.
At the very least, the necessary capacity for the functioning of open channels with a catchment area of more than 2 km2 must be preserved, with the help of any required maintenance work, so as to avoid large areas becoming marshy again.
In the course of constructing and maintaining aqueducts and conduits the danger of water pollution should be reduced to a minimum. In order to increase both the biological diversity and that of the landscape itself the aqueducts must be as natural as possible.
To keep agricultural production at the planned level:
reconstruction, repair and maintenance work must be carried out on open channels and drainage systems in areas which will still be used for production;
areas which will fall out of production should be afforested, and in such a way that the drainage systems remaining under the forest would be preserved;
the implementation of work for the putting in order and maintaining of land amelioration systems should be organised by land amelioration cooperatives; technical assistance on the management of such cooperatives should be provided to their members;
an application should be made that the government put the maintenance and repair of open channels in the State budget but that the implementation of the work remains an assignment of the land amelioration bureaus;
specialists should work out recommendations for the application of rational technology in repair and maintenance work;
complementary training in the introduction of rational technologies should be organised for specialists from land amelioration cooperatives and other enterprises dealing with land amelioration.
From the point of view of water conservation:
the concentration of production in unsuitable areas must be avoided;
manure treatment in farms and cooperatives must be regulated;
recommendations for the utilisation of chemical fertilisers, manure and toxic chemicals must be introduced; '
recommendations for bringing the number of animals into correspondence with the size of the field must be taken into consideration;
sustainable agriculture must be promoted;
a State programme for the functioning and preservation of land amelioration systems and their open channels must be developed by 1998;
work schemes for the improvement of the water supply situation to inhabitants of rural areas must be developed at the municipal level.
See also Chapter 7 regarding these issues.
