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. Only a few per cent of the productive forests below the mountain region (sub-alpine forests) are old-growth forests with high conservation values.

Although, Sweden holds a considerable proportion of the remaining old-growth forests of Europe. Over 1 800 animal and plant species in the Swedish forests are red-listed and many of them are dependent on old trees, dead wood and deciduous trees to survive. In order to reverse the ongoing biodiversity degradation, between 10 and 20 per cent of the total productive forest land below the mountain region need to be protected. There is a consensus among Sweden’s leading biological scientists that the Swedish forest politics is threatening the biological diversity in the forest.

In 2007 only about 3.3 per cent of the Swedish productive forests were formally protected from logging as national parks, nature reserves, habitat protection areas and by nature conservation agreements. Less than 2 per cent of the Swedish forests below the mountain region were formally protected.

Environmentally certified logging of High Conservation Value Forest in mid-east Sweden. Photo: John Lööf Green

One of the Swedish environmental quality objectives, “Sustainable forests”, states that the value of forests and forest land for biological production must be protected and biological diversity safeguarded, by year 2010. A recent review of the national environmental quality objectives concluded that this quality objective will not be achieved by either 2010 or 2020.

In order to live up to national and international obligations, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, Sweden has a legal responsibility to protect the biological diversity and to ensure that forestry operations are carried out in a sustainable fashion.

There are more unprotected High Conservation Value Forests in Sweden which will show up in later updates of the NordicForests.org Map. Download the NordicForests.org Map for Google Earth here .

Unprotected High Conservation Value Forest in Pasvik, Sør-Varanger Photo: Olli Manninen

The forests of Norway 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.

Less than 4% of the country’s coniferous forests are truly old-growth, with old trees and abundant dead wood in different stages of decay. Forests are, by far, the most important habitat for threatened species. The Norwegian 2006 red-list contains about 3800 species, of which 48 % (1827 species) are forest dwelling (632 of these are dependent on dead wood).

As of January 2009, 1,7% of the productive forest area is protected as national parks or nature reserves where logging is prohibited. Most of this is situated in high-elevation areas and to the north. Less than 0,4% of the lowland forests are protected. This is far less than recommended by leading scientists, estimating 4,6% as an absolute minimum, and 9,3% as a more likely necessary level.

At present, the protection of Norwegian forests is to a large extent controlled by the forest owners and their organizations, through a cooperation project with the authorities – “voluntarily protection”. In this way, forest protection is not primarily guided towards the biologically most important and/or threatened areas, but to the areas where the forest owners consider protection to be more economically profitable than logging. In addition, this is a process where it is difficult for environmental NGOs and others to have any impact.

Norway is the most far-stretching country in Fennoscandia. Therefore it might be a little hard to see that it’s Norway that is centered in this map. Download the NordicForests.org Map for Google Earth here .

Almost all the Norwegian forestry is certified according to PEFC-standards, but these standards are far from adequate from a biological point of view. Often only around 1 % of the area in a forestry landscape is put aside as key habitats. On a daily basis, forests of high conservation value are being logged – including forests that are well documented with large numbers of red-listed species.

The Norwegian authorities have ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and have also joined the international goal of ceasing biodiversity loss within 2010. But, the amount of protected forests, as well as the forestry practices, makes this an impossible ambition. By far, the most important action for safeguarding biodiversity in Norway will be to drastically increase the amount of protected forests – especially the biologically important hot-spot forest types. And they are many as the forest habitats of Norway exhibit some of the greatest variation in Europe. This is due to the mountain range stretching south-north through the length of the country, combined with rugged topography and the north-south gradient (from nemoral to high alpine and arctic zone). There are still many forests and unique habitats left but they are disappearing at an alarming rate.