Estonian Fund for Nature vs. Lüganuse Parish (Pulp Mill Case)

In May 2025, the Lüganuse Municipal Council decided to establish a special local government spatial plan for the construction of a bioproducts production complex (pulp mill) proposed by Viru Keemia Grupp AS. The plant’s main activity would be the production of up to 500,000 tonnes softwood and hardwood pulp per year using advanced KRAFT technology, including the separation of up to 100,000 tonnes of lignin annually during the evaporation process, which would then be further processed into raw graphite. Environmental organizations in Estonia and internationally have raised concerns about the mill’s environmental impacts and published a report highlighting the associated risks (https://environmentalpaper.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Pulping-the-future-2025-07-12.pdf). In June 2025, Estonian Fund for Nature challenged the Lüganuse Municipal Council’s decision and asked the court to declare the special spatial plan invalid, arguing that the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process and the balancing of interests contained several errors. The main issues raised include: 1. The plant would increase logging pressure at a time when logging volumes are already extremely high and reductions are needed. In Estonia, the LULUCF sector has turned into a CO2 emitter instead of sequestrating due to too high logging volumes. 2. It would exacerbate the biodiversity crisis and lead to further loss of forest habitats. 3. It would have a significant climate impact—the factory’s raw materials are associated with at least 2.5 million tonnes of GHG emissions per year. However, this has not been addressed in the SEA report, nor has it been taken into account in decision-making. The report instead gives the impression that the factory would have a solely positive climate impact due to carbon sequestration in wood products, which the complainant argues is in fact marginal. 4. The plant would contribute additional pollution and nutrient inflow into the Baltic Sea, which is already in poor ecological condition. On 9 September 2025, the Tartu Administrative Court in Estonia accepted the Estonian Fund for Nature’s complaint for further proceedings.