The Väinameri Conservation Area () is a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. The Väinameri Conservation Area was established in 2007 to protect the ''Väinameri Conservation Area'' and the surrounding coastal area. The conservation area consists of the Väinameri Sea and the partial conservation areas of four counties; the

Hiiu Hiiu is a subdistrict () in the district of Nõmme, Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It covers an area of and has a population of 3,986 (), population density is . Hiiu has a station on the Elron western route. The first narrow gauge A n ...

sub-conservation area, the

Lääne County Lääne County ( or ''Läänemaa'', literally "Western land"; ; ) is one of the 15 counties of Estonia. It is located in western Estonia and borders the Baltic Sea to the north, Harju County to the north-east, Rapla County to the east, Pärnu Cou ...

sub-conservation area, the

Pärnu County Pärnu County ( or ''Pärnumaa''; ) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is situated in the south-western part of the country, on the coast of Gulf of Riga, and borders Lääne and Rapla counties to the north, Järva and Viljandi counties to ...

sub-conservation area, and the Saare sub-conservation area. It has also been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

. The conservation area protects, for example, coastal lakes, underwater sand dunes, small islands,

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

s and

coastal meadow Coastal meadows are meadows in the coastal zone, influenced by the sea. Under this definition, the salinity of the air and wind is usually high and the flora is dominated by salt-tolerant species. Some coastal meadows may be flooded by seawater ...

s, as well as the habitats of many protected species (''

Cypripedium calceolus ''Cypripedium calceolus'' is a lady's-slipper orchid, and the type species of the genus ''Cypripedium''. It is native to Europe and Asia. Taxonomy ''Cypripedium'' comes from the Greek Κύπρις πεδίον (''Kypris pedion''), meaning Aphro ...

'',

northern shoveler The northern shoveler (; ''Spatula clypeata''), known simply in Britain as the shoveler, is a common and widespread duck. It breeds in northern areas of Europe and throughout the Palearctic and across most of North America, and winters in southe ...

tundra swan The tundra swan (''Cygnus columbianus'') is a small swan of the Holarctic. The two taxa within it are usually regarded as conspecific, but are also sometimes split into two species: Bewick's swan (''Cygnus bewickii'') of the Palaearctic and the w ...

References

Protected areas of Estonia Important Bird Areas of Baltic islands Important Bird Areas of Estonia {{Estonia-geo-stub

See also

References