Government approves Alutaguse park expansion by 24,749 hectares

The Estonian government has approved a draft amendment to the protection rules for Alutaguse National Park, expanding the protected area by 24,749 hectares to 69,768 hectares, ERR reported.

The main aim is to connect existing protected areas and protected species habitats into one functioning whole. Energy and Environment Minister Andres Sutt said Alutaguse is Estonia’s largest continuous forest and wetland landscape and the only place in the country where the flying squirrel still lives.

“The current protection is fragmented: small permanent habitats surrounded by commercial forests have not improved the species’ condition. With the expansion, we will connect these separate fragments into a functioning whole,” Sutt said.

The existing, separate sections of the national park and nearly 100 small permanent habitats will be linked into an ecologically functioning forest mass, which is considered necessary to improve protection for two key species: the flying squirrel and the capercaillie.

The expansion will take place almost entirely on state-owned land. Private land accounts for 24 hectares, or about 0.1 percent of the total expansion. It will be placed in a limited-use zone where forest management will remain possible under certain conditions.

The park will incorporate 97 previously separate permanent species habitats covering a total of 7,506 hectares. A further 17,237 hectares will receive protection for the first time, most of it valuable forest communities. The expansion will also protect 3,040 hectares of previously unprotected wetlands, including the Virunurme bog and the Lemmaku, Kaasiku, Kassisaare, Õpetaja and Pikasilla wetlands.

The flying squirrel’s range in Estonia is limited to the Alutaguse region, and the species is in critical condition. Existing permanent habitats consist of 25-metre-radius circles around nesting trees.

Flying squirrels glide from tree to tree rather than fly, requiring a continuous tree canopy. If the surrounding forest is cleared, a protected circle can be left isolated in an open area, leaving the animal without food or a route to move onwards. This creates small, disconnected populations that eventually die out without links between them. The same principle applies to the capercaillie and other species that depend on old-growth forests: what matters is not the number of isolated patches, but whether they are connected.

The expansion will add 10,513 hectares of capercaillie habitat to the protected area. Alutaguse is one of Estonia’s most important capercaillie core areas. Overall, protection will improve for 37 threatened or declining species.

Drawing on experience from neighbouring countries such as Lithuania and Finland, the expansion is expected to benefit nature tourism and the service sector that depends directly on it.

Alutaguse has Estonia’s only continental dunes, known as kriivad, the country’s lake-richest landscape in Kurtna, the longest sandy beach on the shores of Lake Peipus and, in Puhatu, one of Northern Europe’s largest wetland complexes.

The national park’s presence also sends an international signal that the region has quality visitor infrastructure for exploring its natural assets. The State Forest Management Centre is building a nature trail running through the treetops in Kauksi, unique in Estonia, and is reconstructing the Kauksi recreation area.

A nature spa was recently opened in Uusküla, while development in the holiday-home areas on the northern shore of Lake Peipus has accelerated compared with previous years. Together with existing attractions and accommodation providers, the expansion is expected to support longer visitor stays outside the main summer season.

The procedure began with an order signed by the climate minister on October 17, 2024. The draft protection rules were publicly displayed from June 18 to September 5, 2025.

Following the proposals received, the rules for logging in the Metsise limited-use zone were eased, 1.7 hectares of residential land were removed from protection, and construction on courtyard land was permitted.

The regulation will enter into force on the 10th day after its publication in the State Gazette. ERR reported in April that the possible expansion of Alutaguse National Park had been delayed.