Summary

Recently, logging issues have attained a high degree of visibility in society. Even people who are not forest owners seem to care about what’s happening in the woods. The article seeks an answer to the question of whether impact assessments in Natura areas in Estonia are carried out in conformity with the requirements of European Union law. The article primarily examines the obligation to initiate a procedure of assessment in connection with logging. The article also gives a detailed explanation of the cases where the obligation to assess the impact of logging within a special procedure arises from European and Estonian law, and analyses whether the effective national law and its implementation practice is in line with European Union law. The article aims at contributing to a discussion on whether the assessment of the ecologic impact on Natura areas could and should be organised in a separate procedure instead of assessing these impacts in the general form of an environmental impact assessment.