The condition of wet forests usually deteriorates due to the combined influence of several risk factors. The biggest impact of these is forest drainage and logging.

Drainage is extensive in Estonia: nearly a third of forest land is drained. Mire woodlands make up less than 7% of the land area in Estonia, but peatland forests that arise due to draining make up 15%. A large part of the current mire woodlands is affected by drainage, also in protected areas. As a result of drainage, peat starts to decompose. Over time, the water regime and habitat characteristics of the area change, and the area stops functioning as a mire. Drainage also changes vegetation. Due to the decrease in humidity, the mire vegetation coverage decreases, and plants from drier areas come to replace them. As a result of drainage, trees begin to grow faster, and the stand becomes denser. The resulting decrease in light causes mire species that require light to disappear. The number of natural water bodies is also decreasing, and floods occur less frequently, resulting in the loss of associated habitats.

In many protected areas, forests have historically been managed through logging, which still occurs in limited management zones today. However, regeneration cutting and subsequent reforestation mostly change the composition and structure of the stand compared to the natural one. Improvement cutting also evens out the stand's structure; leaving uniform and orderly arranged trees. Felling reduces dead wood amount and formation.

Sometimes, in order to improve the condition of habitat in a nature reserve, it may be necessary to modify the management around the protected area instead. The effects of drainage have a particularly widespread impact. In Finland, for example, it has been estimated that 80% of wetlands without ditches still show drainage effects.

Owners of private forest land within the Natura 2000 network can apply for Natura 2000 support on private forest land. The support's aim is to contribute to the sustainable use of private forest land in the Natura network by compensating private forest owners for income loss from forest management. The support can be applied for a forest area that is owned by the applicant and has been entered as a forest area in the environmental register (and thus also in the Natura 2000 private forest land support layer available in the Land Board's public map application).

With the help of the LIFE-IP project ForEst&FarmLand, an action plan will be drawn up for wet, dry forests and natural management of forets in protected areas. Read more about the project from their website.