Conservation and Restoration of Mire Habitats — Estonia's LIFE Mires Programme

About a fifth of Estonia's mires were drained for forestry and peat extraction during the Soviet era, degrading habitats protected under the EU Habitats Directive and turning former carbon sinks into net emitters as exposed peat oxidises. The Estonian Fund for Nature (Eestimaa Looduse Fond) ran the EUR 2.8 million LIFE Mires project from 2015 to 2021, co-financed by the European Commission's LIFE Programme and Estonia's Environmental Investment Centre, across six Natura 2000 sites: Tudusoo, Sirtsi, Lahemaa, Alam-Pedja, Agusalu and Ohepalu.

Works included closing 317 kilometres of drainage ditches, constructing roughly 2,500 dams, moving about 300,000 cubic metres of soil, and sowing Sphagnum moss to accelerate the return of ten target mire and bog-woodland habitat types.

Natural water conditions were restored across nearly 8,000 hectares, exceeding the project's roughly 6,000-hectare target. Botanical, hydrological and remote-sensing monitoring documented the return of species including willow grouse, moor frog, western capercaillie, Leucorrhinia dragonflies and bog-associated butterflies, alongside recovering wild cranberry stands. Preliminary 2021 results reported re-established mire vegetation and hydrological conditions consistent with reduced carbon emissions from the rewetted peat, though no verified CO2 tonnage was published.

The project published a best-practice handbook to support replication of its restoration methods elsewhere in the EU, evidencing a deliberate transferability strategy rather than a one-off intervention, though long-term biodiversity trends were still being monitored at closeout.