Current view: Text account
Site description (2000 baseline):
Site location and context
A complex of shallow (<4 m) bays and small islets on the southern coast of Saaremaa island, with vast reedbeds, coastal meadows and saltmarshes. The main economic activities are fishing, sheep-grazing and forestry.
Kasti bay is an important staging area for migrating geese and a notable breeding area for several waterbirds. Significant proportion (³1%) of national population breeding at site:
Sterna albifrons (min. 10 pairs).
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Major threats are posed by unsustainable hunting, tourism, overgrowth of coastal meadows with reed
Phragmites due to undergrazing, and intensive fishing. The area is a planned core area of the West Estonian Archipelago Biosphere Reserve. Research involves monitoring of migrating waterbirds.
National None
International High3,877 ha of IBA covered by Biosphere Reserve (West Estonian Archipelago, 1,560,000 ha).
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Kasti bay (Estonia). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/kasti-bay-iba-estonia on 23/11/2024.
