Oppland County is the second largest county in Norway, and besides Oppland, it is the only county in Norway that have no shoreline to the sea. In addition, the county is “packed” with biodiversity hot spot forests. Unfortunately less than one percent of the counties forests are protected by law.

Hedmark county is the region in Norway with the highest percentage of forest cover. It’s a county with big differences – the southern part of the county is almost totally transformed into young plantation forest, whereas you can still find areas with old-growth forests in the northern parts which are more montanious.

There are 22,9 million hectares of forests (forest and scrublands) in Finland and they cover some 75% of the total land area. Strictly protected forests cover 4,5 % of the forest land, and if the scrub lands are included, the total number is 8 %. Forests are the most important ecosystem for the endangered species. 564 species (37,5 %) of all endangered species live in forests.

More than half of Sweden is covered by forests. Forestry policies and methods have resulted in the conversion of the forest landscape into industrial forests that lack key features of natural forests. More than 90 per cent of Swedish forests are, or have been, in commercial use and are affected by systematic forest management. Old, natural forests are and have been clear-cut and replaced by plantations and industrial forests that have low biodiversity values.

In Norway the forests have been intensely harvested for hundreds of years, and virgin forests are almost completely gone, while some regions still holds larger tracts of rather old forests that have been subjected only to selective loggings in the past. More than 50% of the forest is under 60 years of age, and it has been estimated that no more than 10% can be classified as near-natural.

»Under the terms of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Sweden and Finland have made a commitment to protect biodiversity and to use natural resources sustainably. To achieve this, signatory countries to the CBD have decided on a goal to establish comprehensive, effective networks of protected areas for terrestial ecosystems by 2010. In the programme [...]