Passionate about wildlife and proud citizen of Tallinn, Lauri is involved in many projects concerning the protection of green areas in Tallinn and its region. One of the things he is most proud of is the fact that Tallinn kept many natural areas under protection and continues to take good care of it.

Lauri’s educational background is in zoology but then he pursued his master’s thesis in Landscape Ecology. He also worked for eight years at the European Environment Agency (EEA) and is now giving environmental advice at the municipality of Tallinn. His position at the EEA back then gave him the opportunity to visit many capitals in Europe and to understand how urban areas are built. His main interest lies in the wildlife and the preservation of natural areas and now he is focusing on many green initiatives in his hometown and especially in the study of wild animals in the city.

First thing that Lauri is highlighting when telling us about himself and his work in Tallinn is that green areas are a big part of the Estonian capital. They represent up to 14% of the total area, without counting the ones outside the city.

Tallinn is known for its vibrant wildlife and the Estonian capital is home to various rare species. More than 20 different species have been found in Tallinn such as lynxes, roe deer and moose, which are quite rare. In total, around 200 moose are co-living with 400,000 human beings, citizens from Tallinn.

A vision of the city as an ecosystem

Lauri insists on the fact that cities should be a better living environment. According to him, it’s a pity that people want to escape the cities during weekends. Everybody should be happy to live in cities, even during their free time. In a way, it shows that the conditions of living inside the cities are not as good as they should be, and they need to be changed.

“The key for it are healthy ecosystems inside the cities” – although Lauri, recognises that Tallinn is already very green, he insists on the fact that we should start seeing cities as an ecosystem itself and to think about nature and the city as one entity.

“Cities should give energy to the people living in it”. Rivers for example are “veins of the nature” and should also be present in cities, it’s something city officials should work on.