The Supreme Court revoked the permit granted to OÜ Hiiu Turva for peat mining, because the impact of the mining on the bird species living in the bog and the bog as a habitat for birds was not properly taken into account when it was granted, the court announced in its press release.
OÜ Hiiu Turvas wanted to mine peat in the state-owned Elbu V peat production area in Pärnu county. The Environmental Board carried out an environmental impact assessment of the planned activity and granted the private company a mining permit.
The Estonian Ornithology Association appealed to the court to cancel the permit, but both the administrative and the district court rejected the appeal. However, the Supreme Court today decided to annul both the previous decisions of the courts and the order of the Environmental Board to issue a mining permit. The Supreme Court ordered the Environmental Board to pay the ornithological association’s procedural costs in full.
In today’s decision, the Administrative Board of the Supreme Court stated that the Environmental Board partially failed to check in the permit procedure whether peat mining should have been refused to avoid its inappropriate use or because of a conflict with the state’s interests. The panel emphasized that peat mining causes significant environmental disturbances, the prevention of which must be considered as a national interest.
Such disturbances can only be permitted on the condition that they are proportionate to the benefits to be derived from mining, but in this case such consideration was essentially not carried out. Also, when evaluating the justification for granting the permit, the goal set by the state should have been taken into account to prevent further drainage of marsh areas in their natural state and to ensure the favorable condition of the habitat type of the bog and the plant and animal species there.
The panel also noted that as a result of the planned activity, a marshland in its natural state, which meets the characteristics of a primary habitat type in the sense of the European Union’s Habitats Directive, will be destroyed. The condition of this habitat type in Estonia has been assessed as unfavorable-inadequate. Although the Elbu V area is not included in the Natura 2000 network or a natural object protected in any other way, the Environmental Board should also have taken into account the cumulative effect resulting from the destruction of the habitat and the species living in it on the national status of the habitat type when granting the permit.
The collegium also pointed to other substantive and procedural violations in the permit procedure, which might have led to an erroneous final decision.
The judgment can be found on the website of the Supreme Court.
2024-03-14 14:46:23
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