Reviewing the coherence and effectiveness of implementation of multilateral biodiversity agreements in Estonia

The report evaluates Estonia's implementation of a cluster of four global biodiversity conventions using a 15-category methodology. It concludes that overall implementation effectiveness is relatively high, with 'Cross-border cooperation' scoring as strong and the remaining 14 categories scoring as moderate. While Estonia has a unified administrative system under the Ministry of the Environment and a comprehensive legal framework, the report identifies gaps in inter-sectoral coordination, stakeholder engagement, and the lack of a specific integrated action plan for these conventions.

• Estonia's overall implementation effectiveness of the four biodiversity conventions is evaluated as relatively high, as no review category received a weak score.
• Cross-border cooperation is the only category with a strong implementation score, while the other 14 categories, including financing, are rated as moderate.
• Estonia lacks a specific integrated national action plan for the biodiversity conventions; instead, objectives are pursued through the Nature Conservation Development Plan (NCDP) 2020 and various species and habitat management plans.
• The governance of biodiversity conventions is consolidated under the Ministry of the Environment, which optimizes resources but makes it difficult to isolate the specific effectiveness and targets of individual conventions.
• Inter-sectoral and inter-institutional cooperation is insufficient, particularly regarding the integration of biodiversity into non-conservation ministerial and regional policies.
• Stakeholder engagement is limited to specific stages such as management planning and impact assessments, with no formal procedure for consulting stakeholders on national reports or including NGOs in COP delegations.
• Financing for the conventions is embedded within the general nature conservation budget, meaning there is no specific budget line for the implementation of individual MEAs.
• Environmental enforcement is managed by the Environmental Inspectorate, and while the total number of environmental violations has decreased since 2003, fish protection remains the area with the highest number of violations.
• The status of species and habitats protected under the EU Habitats Directive showed improvement between 2007 and 2013, though 35% of species and 48% of habitats remained in unfavourable status as of 2013.

APA

Peterson, K., Kuldna, P., Peev, P., & Uustal, M. (2014). Reviewing the coherence and effectiveness of implementation of multilateral biodiversity agreements in Estonia. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/reviewing-the-coherence-and-effectiveness-of-implementation-of-multilateral-biodiversity-sei-tallinn-2013.pdf

Chicago

Peterson, Kaja, Piret Kuldna, Plamen Peev, and Meelis Uustal. Reviewing the coherence and effectiveness of implementation of multilateral biodiversity agreements in Estonia. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2014. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/reviewing-the-coherence-and-effectiveness-of-implementation-of-multilateral-biodiversity-sei-tallinn-2013.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Peterson |first1=Kaja |last2=Kuldna |first2=Piret |last3=Peev |first3=Plamen |last4=Uustal |first4=Meelis |title=Reviewing the coherence and effectiveness of implementation of multilateral biodiversity agreements in Estonia |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2014 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/reviewing-the-coherence-and-effectiveness-of-implementation-of-multilateral-biodiversity-sei-tallinn-2013.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{peterson2014reviewing, author = {Peterson, Kaja and Kuldna, Piret and Peev, Plamen and Uustal, Meelis}, title = {{Reviewing the coherence and effectiveness of implementation of multilateral biodiversity agreements in Estonia}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2014}, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/reviewing-the-coherence-and-effectiveness-of-implementation-of-multilateral-biodiversity-sei-tallinn-2013.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }