Kihnu saare metsade areng ja inimfaktori osa selles

Since the determining factor in forest development on Kihnu Island (total area 16.38 km2) has been human influence, we can follow what has occurred there through three developmental stages stemming from human activity. The first of these encompasses the time of the emergence of permanent settlement on the island (apparently in the early 14th century) and of the pressure on the island's forest community by the increasing permanent population. That time gave rise to the island's forest use traditions, which were upheld in the subsequent centuries and were even observable in the post-WWII period (grazing in forest, gathering and raking of forest litter). By the 17th and 18th centuries at the latest, the Kihnu forest was regarded as a daytime navigation mark. Its importance in immobilising the drifting sand was also recognised, hence attempts were made to restrict or even prohibit the cutting of the growing stock. The second stage can be considered to have begun in 1829. It is characterised by systematic forest management, predominantly by means of clear cutting, as well as by establishing plantations in clear-cut areas where necessary and enlarging the forest area by afforesting wastelands (primarily sandy zones). In 1829-1935, when clear cutting was employed, the annual cutting area was predominantly 1.1 ha and the intensity of the cutting ranged from 0.9 to 2.1 tm/ha. Since management by clear cutting did not justify itself on the island, forest use in the late 19th-early 20th century was temporarily confined to sanitation cutting. Since 1935 transition to selection cutting started. The third stage in the development of the island's forests commenced in the second half of the 1930s, when management methods characteristic of protection forests were implemented in what had until then been a commercial forest. Officially, the forest on Kihnu was granted the status of protection forest in 1944. Based on cartographic material, the share of woodland in the total area of the island in the late 17th century has been estimated at 2-3% (Map 1); in reality, it may have been as high as in the early 19th century, i.e. approximately 8%, or 130 ha. In 1924, the area of woodlands was assessed at 190 ha. By the 1940s, the figure dropped below the 180-ha (11%) mark due to the transfer of non-wooded areas to farms. At the same time, the stand area grew by more than a third. The island's forest cover can approximately be put at 5-6% in the mid-19th century, 7% in 1877 and 9% in 1949 (Table 1). The island's forest cover percentage increased primarily due to the afforestation of sandy zones, which was begun in 1829. Including the afforestation of clearcut areas, a total of approximately 210 ha of forest plantations were established in 1829-1949, which is significantly greater than the stand area registered in 1949 (156 ha). While in the mid-19th century the island's northeast coast was still covered with bare sands (Map 2), they were afforested in the subsequent decade