S2 Ep. 24 – Europe’s energy policies fire up Estonia’s woodland warriors – Europe Talks Back

In this episode of Europe Talks Back, Gail Rego tells the story of Liina Steinberg and her fight against the Estonian booming biomass industry. In the decades since independence from the Soviet Union, Estonia started relaxing its forest management practices, and large-scale logging has boomed to meet the demand for renewable energy and has become one of the EU’s largest exporters of wood pellets.

As Liina saw the forests around her shrinking, she took her fight from the streets to the courts. With the NGO she founded in 2020 - Save the Estonian Forest - she is campaigning against the pace of logging and promoting conservation. Her crusade is just getting started. Reporting on the ground by Isabelle de Pommereau.