According to Climate Minister Romina Pourmokhtari, the Swedish forest system is the most sustainable in the world: trees absorb carbon dioxide throughout their lives and are an inexhaustible resource. Environmental organizations commented on this matter, saying that it is actually harmful to nature.
The silence, space and tranquility of the Swedish forest are matched by the sounds of saws and chippers. Forestry in Sweden is a matter of cutting down trees and replanting them again after about seventy years. The vast majority of Swedish forests are managed through clear cutting.
This way, a lot of wood is harvested at once. Politicians say it is a sustainable system. Swedish forests are considered “the most sustainable in the world,” according to Climate Minister Romina Pourmokhtari. Trees are processed into building materials and sawn timber, which is an inexhaustible raw material.
In addition, the forest is a carbon reservoir, because trees absorb carbon dioxide throughout their lives. This makes forests part of climate policy. Over the past century, the size of Swedish forests has doubled through logging.
Read also | Forests that solve the carbon dioxide problem
Clear
About seventy percent of the land is covered with trees. There are 320,000 private forest owners in Sweden. About half of forest land is owned by families and individuals. A quarter of it is owned by a few large industrial forestry companies. 22% of it is owned by the state, 14% by the state forest company Sveaskog, and the remaining 8% are protected forests.
These forest owners have great freedom in how they manage the forest. The vast majority of forest owners and companies do this by clear-cut logging – killing almost all the trees on a given piece of land. About 1% of Swedish forests are cut down every year.
“Disastrous to nature”
According to politicians and industry, deforestation should not be slowed down, but accelerated. It's a solution to the climate crisis: trees absorb carbon dioxide and forest products are renewable, unlike plastic packaging and fossil fuels.
Not everyone agrees with that. Scientists and environmental organizations describe the current forest model as disastrous for nature. The current system of clear cutting creates empty plains, completely disrupting the ecosystem.
Read also | “Deforestation is still increasing around the world.”
Industrial forest management
Sweden has been operating this industrial forest management since around 1950, and hundreds of plant and animal species have noticed a negative impact. A very small percentage of Swedish forests are called continuity forest. According to environmental organizations, these forests need better protection.
The fact that forest energy sources are renewable does not mean they are also sustainable, opponents of large-scale clear-cutting say. Replacing fossil raw materials with biological materials is an important aspect of climate transition, but according to them, policy now ignores the ecological and social function of the forest.
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