Tartu and Pskov, the two largest towns in the basin, are located in the central and southeastern part of the Lake Peipsi basin. These towns are also important sources of lake pollution: the construction of a biology laboratory in the sewage treatment plant in Tartu and the last part of the sewage treatment plan of Pskov are to be completed in the next few years.

In the central part of the Lake Peipsi area, rural settlements prevail. On the Russian side especially, which is quite sparsely populated, vast areas of wetlands have impeded the development of agriculture and industry on a larger scale. One of the larger centers is the town of Gdov with a population of less than 1000 people. On the Estonian side, the lake's culturally mixed rural communities are located along the lake coast. Russian Old Believers who live in the lakeside communities in this area are well known for growing cucumbers and onions. Commercial and small-scale fishing is currently an important source of income, especially because the small enterprises and the access to Russian (St Petersburg) market for local cucumbers and onions that existed during the Soviet time has been closed.

The northern part of the basin is the most industrialized and is closely linked to the use of the only natural resource that exists in this area - oil shale. Two of the world's largest thermal power plants that work on oil shale - Baltic and Estonian - are on the Estonian side and are major energy producers. The power plants as well as chemical enterprises are also main sources of air pollution.

Natural resources

Land use of the Lake Peipsi Basin.

There is only one natural resource of industrial importance in the Lake Peipsi basin: oil shale. The oil shale in the Baltic Basin is one of the most unique by virtue of its composition and high quality. Some 80% of the oil shale production is for energy production. The remaining 20% is used as raw material for chemical enterprises in towns like Kohtla-Järve (Estonia), and Slancy (Russia). Besides oil shale and locally used small deposits of construction materials, there are renewable resources like water, fish, forests and peat.

Borders and border-crossings

The total length of the Estonian - Russian border is 333,8 km of which approximately two-thirds runs along Lake Peipsi and the Narva River. The border treaty between two countries has not been signed yet, so officially there is no border, only a control line.

There are 5 international border crossing points between the Republic of Estonia and the Russian Federation, but none of them on the lake, which means that the distance between southern and northern border crossing points is about 200 km.

Cultural background

The Old Believers from Russia first settled on the Estonian shore of Lake Peipsi in the 18th century to find a peaceful place.

In the summertime it gets sometimes very hot around Lake Peipsi (up to 30oC).

Most phosphorous and nitrogen compounds are carried into the lake by two rivers. The Estonian river Emajõgi and the Russian river Velikaya account for approximately 80% of the total nitrogen load and almost 85% of the total phosphorus loads. The first carries biologically treated sewage from the Russian town of Pskov, the latter transports wastewater from the Estonian town of Tartu. The wastewater of Tartu remained untreated until 1998. It is interesting to compare the studies done in the middle of 1980s with those of the 1990s: they show great decreases in pollution loads, especially with regards to agriculture. North-East Estonia, where oil shale is concentrated, is one of the most developed industrial regions of the country. The wastewaters and gaseous emission of toxic sulphur and nitrogen oxides, hydrogen chlorine and carcinogenic compounds from power stations operating on pulverized oil shale have a considerable impact on the chemical composition of water in Lake Peipsi. As one travels from south to north the content of total nitrogen decreases, while water transparency increases. The first trend is caused by the impact of the pollution loads from big cities like Pskov and Tartu, the second by the sediment pumped from the mines when it finally reaches the lake. Also large-scale expansion of reeds has taken place.

Systematical hydrobiological and water quality investigations were started on the whole aquatory of the lake in 1962. They were carried out until 1991, when Soviet Union collapsed and Estonia regained its independence. At the moment monitoring is still done separately by Estonia and Russia, but the coordinated monitoring program is being implemented.

Fish stock and fish management

According to present data, one lamprey and 33 fish species permanently inhabit Lake Peipsi or the lower reaches of its tributaries. The main commercial fish are lake smelt, perch, pikeperch, ruffe, roach, bream, pike and, until the 1990s, also vendace. Secondary commercial fish are burbot, whitefish and white bream. As a result of intensive use of trawls and fine-meshed Danish seines, the stock of pikeperch was strongly depressed for a long time (1957-82). But since trawls were prohibited and the number of Danish seines considerably restricted (from 133 to 40), pikeperch has become one of the most important commercial fish in the lake.

At the beginning of the nineties the possibility of exporting fish to the European market appeared. The opening of this new and highly profitable market resulted in rapidly increasing pressure on fish resources, both in terms of the number of fishermen and in their effort. Some of the most important coastal fishery resources have been over-fished because of high export market demand coupled with poor resource management, control and enforcement. The costs connected to fishing have grown much more than the first buyer prices. Additionally, dynamic development of the Estonian economy has yielded substantial increases of wages in other sectors of economy and therefore the well being of fishermen has steadily worsened. This, in turn, has resulted in increasing social problems.

While the average monthly gross wage has risen by nearly five times, the first buyer price of pikeperch has fallen by 1/5. Therefore the amount of pikeperch (kg) needed to earn an average Estonian wage (taxes excluded, fishery costs included) has risen by nearly seven times. Of course it has resulted in increased pressure on the fish stocks and worsened living conditions of fishermen.

The number of professional fishermen has varied over the last 10 years. An increase during the first half of the 1990s was followed by a later decline. The total number of professional fishermen on Lake Peipsi is estimated at approximately 450 in Estonia and 700 in Russia. In Estonia there are only five fishing enterprises and a few private entrepreneurs, whereas in Russia there are about 60 enterprises. In both states, all fishing enterprises are private and are mostly in the form of joint-holding companies.

Needs/Uses/Demands

In the Lake Peipsi watershed there is enough clean ground- and surface water to meet the basic needs of the population. The only bigger settlement using lake water for drinking is Narva (73,000 inhabitants), which takes its water from the River Narva (the only river flowing out of the lake). As the drainage basin of Lake Peipsi is so sparsely populated and there are no big cities, industrial capacity and its water demand is relatively small and heavy pollution is not a crucial issue in the region.

The biggest industrial user of the lake water is Baltic Thermal Powerplant, which uses the water of the Narva River for cooling purposes, with annual demand averaging 470 million m³ of water.

The Narva River is also used for hydro energy production. The Narva Reservoir (capacity 90 million m³, 5000 MWh) guarantees steady water flow for Narva Hydropower Station (average 127 MW, and max 140 MW).

Joint management and monitoring

Lake Peipsi belongs both to the Republic of Estonia and the Russian Federation, who are responsible for the management and monitoring of the lake.

The Estonian-Russian Transboundary Water Commission was established in 1997 after the signing of an intergovernmental agreement on the protection and sustainable use of transboundary water bodies between the Republic of Estonia and the Russian Federation.

The Commission is the main actor in managing Lake Peipsi. It is in charge of:
- organizing the exchange of monitoring data between the parties in accordance with the agreed monitoring program;
- defining priority directions and programs of scientific studies on protection and sustainable use of transboundary waters;
- agreeing on common indicators of quality for transboundary waters, and methods of testing and analysing water;
- facilitating cooperation between executing agencies, local governments, scientific and public interest organizations, as well as other institutions in the field of sustainable development and protection of transboundary waters;
- ensuring communication of results of discussions related to the use and protection of the transboundary waters.

During the last few years the Commission has received considerable support from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency as part of a project to raise the institutional capacity of the Commission.

International agreements concerning water use and water protection

Stakeholder participation

Old fisherman from Piirissaar Island - the biggest island in the lake with about 100 permanent inhabitants.

The Commission has established formal mechanisms for development of cooperation with local authorities, NGOs and stakeholders, which allows NGOs and local stakeholders in the region to communicate their issues and interests directly to the intergovernmental commission. However, only a few regional NGOs are involved in the work of the Commission; capacity of most of local NGOs and stakeholder groups is low and external financial support is necessary to promote development of capacity of local NGOs and stakeholders, to enable them to get involved in management of transboundary waters shared by countries in transition.

Regional NGOs, such as the Peipsi Center for Transboundary Cooperation (Peipsi CTC) and the Council for Cooperation of Border Regions, cooperate with the local authorities and stakeholders on regional development projects as well as on educational, research and social projects in the region. Peipsi CTC is also actively involved in the work of the Estonian - Russian Transboundary Water Commission.

A broad partnership between public and private interests

Local and regional authorities and businessmen in the Lake Peipsi region promote transboundary economic cooperation: they invest in construction of roads, water transport and tourism infrastructure, and they promote the region internationally. One of the major projects that the regional authorities and businessmen are trying to start is re-establishment of a passenger and cargo transport across the lake.

In many cases local municipalities support small private companies providing freshwater for the settlements around the lake. The price per cubic metre of freshwater varies between 1-3 euros.

The most important planning and development issue concerning Lake Peipsi is the preparation of a Lake Peipsi Management Plan. This cooperative effort between the Estonian and Russian governments, regional and local authorities and private and public companies, is to be completed by 2007.

As Lake Peipsi is a relatively new transboundary water basin, the procedures for international coordination of water management have to be drawn up. This is especially challenging in this situation, as Estonia will enter the European Union in 2004-2005 and is adopting EU standards and norms that are different from those in Russia. The task is not an easy one - development of cooperative integrated water management is a long process, and economic and social development problems should be resolved along with water management issues.

Ensuring the knowledge base

Traditional Peipsi wooden boats moored on western shore of Lake Peipsi.

Estonian and Russian research cooperation was interrupted by the re-establishment of the border at the beginning of the 1990s, and restored in the middle of the 1990s. Estonian environmental experts in cooperation with their Russian colleagues published a comprehensive Lake Peipsi monograph in 1999. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Danish EPA; and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs have all supported regional studies and development of strategies for pollution reduction and prevention, and development in the Lake Peipsi region. Reports have been published in English, Estonian and Russian and have been widely disseminated. A large research project MANTRA-East was supported by the European Union; and is being carried out by both Estonian and Russian organizations, plus five European research institutions.

Eutrophication is the greatest problem of Lake Peipsi. The main task in managing the lake is to slow down the pace of nutrient runoff, mostly by building new wastewater treatment facilities. Also the expected future economic growth in the region has to be taken into account, because it is likely to increase the nutrient load into the lake. Eutrophication also poses a threat to fish in the lake, as economically less valuable fish resist eutrophication better.

The need to diversify economic activities

Peipsi is one of the best lakes in Europe for commercial fishing. Due to the economic difficulties in the area and high unemployment, there is great pressure on the lake's fish resources. Fishing has been the main source of income for most of the population around Lake Peipsi, but with the decreasing fish stock the lake cannot provide living for the same number of people any more. The number of professional fishermen is too high, and therefore there is an urgent need to diversify economic activities in the region.