| Kanepi Parish | |
| Native Name: | Kanepi vald |
| Settlement Type: | Municipality of Estonia |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Estonia |
| Subdivision Type1: | County |
| Subdivision Name1: | Põlva |
| Seat Type: | Administrative centre |
| Seat: | Kanepi |
| Leader Party: | unaffiliated |
| Leader Title: | Municipality Governor |
| Leader Name: | Piret Rammul |
| Area Total Km2: | 524.68 |
| Population Total: | 4662 |
| Population As Of: | 01.01.2020 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Website: | www.kanepi.kovtp.ee |
| Iso Code: | EE-284 |
Kanepi Parish (Estonian: Kanepi vald) is a rural municipality of Estonia, in Põlva County. It has a population of 4,662 (as of 1 January 2020) and an area of .[1] The administrative centre is Kanepi.
It was created in 2017 with the merger of Valgjärve, Kõlleste, and Kanepi Parish.
The lakes Aalupi, Erastvere and Hüüdre are located in Kanepi Parish.
After the 2017 merger with Valgjärve and Kõlleste Parishes, the Kanepi Parish was looking for the new flag and coat of arms. As Kanep in Estonian means Cannabis in English,[2] then there were also proposed versions of flag and coat of arms with the cannabis leaf in it. To see what is more popular among the people, the municipality published the seven finalist designs on a parish page where people could vote online for their favorite design. A cannabis leaf won the contest with an overwhelming majority of 12,000 votes, which is larger than the parish population of 5,000.[3] [4]
In May 2018, the city council, baffled by the ordeal, chose to vote for themselves if they wanted to officially adopt the proposed flag, with a slim majority of 9-8 voting to adopt the flag.[5] On May 15, 2018, the municipality announced that the cannabis leaf flag will be the official flag of Kanepi, Andrus Seeme (Mayor) said,[6] and on July 13, 2018, the flag was raised outside the Kanepi municipal building.