National Parks in Sweden: sweden florest

1. Forest Facts

Sweden has Europe’s second biggest afforested area after Russia. Sweden’s productive forests cover about 23 million hectares. However, if this area is calculated according to international forest land definitions, it is 27 million hectares. Approximately 66% of the whole land area is covered with forests.

Figure 1: Forest land definitions according to Swedish National Inventory and FAO

Spruce and pine are by large the predominant species in Swedish forests. These two species count for more than 80% of the timber stock. In northern Sweden pine is the most common species, whereas spruce, mixed with some birch, dominates in southern Sweden.

Due to effective and far-sighted forest management the timber stock in Sweden has increased by more than 60% in the last one hundred years and it is now 3000 million m³. Growth has been most rapid in southern Sweden where forests in the early twentieth century were thin and in poor condition.

In recent years felled quantities have been between 85 and 90 million m³, whereas annual growth amounts approximately to 120 million m³. If fellings are to be increased, improved forestry methods are required. Current studies indicate that wood production can be increased by as much as 20% by 2050 by means of improved forest management.

Figure 2: Annual increment and gross fellings

Swedish forests are a significant sink of carbon. Some 3 billion tonnes of carbon are bound in the standing timber and as much as 6 billion tonnes in the forest soil.

The amount of protected forests in Sweden amounts to circa 1.9 million hectares. A great extent, about 90% of these forests are the kind of forests in which minor interventions are allowed. The share of strictly protected forests, where no human interventions are allowed is 0.3 % from the forest area.

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2. Forest ownership in Sweden

From the forest area:
Privately owned forests                     50 %
State-owned forests and other
public forms of ownership                25 %
Industrial private                                  25 %

Figure 3: Forest land by ownership classes 2007

Private forest owner families hold about 50% of Swedish forests, privately owned forestry companies about 25% and the State and other public owners have the remaining 25%. The ownership of forests in Sweden varies between regions. In Southern parts of the country forests are mainly owned by private persons whereas in Northern Sweden companies own more significant amounts of forests.

There are 355.000 forest owners in Sweden and they supply about 60% of the timber used in industry.

Figure 4: Area subject to felling, by ownership class

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3. Family forestry in Sweden

Traditionally private forest ownership is called “private forestry”, but on international level this concept also includes corporate ownership. For that reason the forest owners’ associations in the Nordic countries use the word “family forestry” to denote private ownership on family level.

In Sweden women constitute 38% of forest owners. Today more than one third of forest owners live in a municipality other than the one where their forest is located. 22 % of forest owners are farmers and already 24% pensioners.

Swedish forest owners are multi-objective owners who have varying objectives in the management of their forests. They value forest’s social services as much as incomes generated from wood sales.

The average size of a forest holding in Sweden is 45 hectares.

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4. Forest owners organisations

LRF Skogsägarna is forest owners' national policy organisation. Four regional forest owner federations – Norra Skog, Norrskog, Mellanskog and Södra - take care of operational forestry and safeguard family forestry in a smaller scale. In total these four forest owner associations have around 104.000 members managing 6.2 million hectares of forests that is approximately 50% of the privately owned forests in Sweden.

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5. Forest certification

80% of the Swedish forest land is certified under either the FSC or under the PEFC certification scheme. FSC certified forests amount to 10.2 million hectares and PEFC certified to 7.5 million hectares. Of the total 7.5 million hectares certified under the PEFC scheme, 3 million hectares are family owned.

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6. Forest Protection and Biodiversity

Forest protection

Figure 5: Forest protection in Sweden

The amount of protected forests in Sweden amounts to circa 1.9 million ha. A great extent, about 90% of these forests are the kind of forests in which minor interventions are allowed. The share of strictly protected forests, where no human interventions are allowed is 0.3% from the forest area. As much as 60% of protected forests are located in northern Sweden, 21% in central Sweden and around 19% in southern Sweden.

Levande Skogar

The forest protection program ’Levande Skogar’ has set following targets in order to ensure the protective functions of Swedish forest:

1) Additional 900.000 hectares of forest will be set aside from production by 2010 for protection purposes.
2) The amount of decayed wood, the area of old broadleaved rich forests and old forests is to be maintained and increased by 2010.
3) Forest land must be used in a way that safeguards ancient monuments and minimises damages on other valuable cultural remains.

Biodiversity

National parks, nature reserves and nature conservation areas cover an area of 4.2 million hectares, i.e. 10% of Sweden’s land area. There are at least 220.000 hectares of protected forests which still in terms of forest growth are productive. In addition, there are about 12.000 hectares of protected habitat types and 25.000 hectares of wood land set aside and protected by environment conservation agreements. Large forest areas are also protected through forest owners’ voluntary activities.

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7. Forest sector in Sweden’s national economy

The forestry business is of decisive importance for the Swedish national economy. It is more important than in any other EU country, apart from Finland. The Swedish forest industry counts for about 12% from industry’s employment, turnover and value added. In 2007 forests-based products exports accounted for 12% of the total Swedish exports. The net export value of wood and wood industry products in 2007 was 110 billion euros. Forest industry’s and forestry’s added value in 2007 amounted to about 3% of the GDP.

About 91.000 – circa 2% - of the total 4.5 million employees work in the forest sector including the forestry business. The number of indirectly employed persons is about the double. Many of them live in sparsely populated areas where lumbering, other forestry work and transportation of wood products constitute the dominant economic activities.

In a global perspective Sweden is an industrial superpower in wood processing. The country is the fourth largest exporter of pulp, third largest exporter of paper and the second largest exporter of sawn timber. Sweden’s pulp and paper industry is the third largest in Europe and it supplies more than one tenth of the demand for paper in the EU countries.

In 2004 wood industry produced 17 million cubic meters of sawn timber and 12.1 million tons of pulp. The production of paper and cardboard amounted to11.6 million tons, of which 2.6 million tons of newsprint, 3.0 million tons of printing and writing paper and 5.9 million tons of other paper and cardboard.

Swedish forests do not only provide wood products and paper. Somewhat over 80% of the biofuels consumed in the country are forest-based. Forest-based fuels, i.e. bark, chips, other forestry residues and energy from pulp factories’ residual black lye constitute almost 18% of the country’s total energy supply, which was about 647 TWh in 2005. The demand for wood-based fuels is expected to increase and it will constitute an important source of income for forest owners in the future.

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8. Forest policy

The Swedish Forest Agency is the national authority responsible for matters relating to the forest. It strives to ensure that the nation’s forests are managed in such a way as to yield an abundant and sustainable harvest while at the same time preserving biodiversity. The Agency also strives to increase awareness of the forest’s significance, including its value for outdoor recreation. The Agency has offices throughout the country. Its most important tasks are to give advice on forest-related matters, supervise compliance with the Forest Act, provide services to the forest industry, support nature conservation efforts and conduct inventories.

More information from the website of the Swedish Forest Agency:
http://www.svo.se

Environment conservation is an equally important factor as timber production in Swedish forest legislation. The basis of Swedish forest policy is co-operation between the State and forest owners for the purpose of achieving sustainable forestry in the long term. This means forestry where economic, environmental, cultural and social interests are taken into account in a balanced manner.

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Facts