From its commitment to renewable electricity generation to buses that run on waste, it's hard to question Sweden's green credibility. The problem with that story-line is that the country is allowing the logging of its remaining old-growth forests. Swedish activists and biologists who have criticized the practice have become increasingly vocal as they witness more logging of these high-conservation-value forests proposed every year.
Despite this, Sweden's Forest Industries Federation is not shy about calling itself a model for sustainable forestry worldwide – 45% of its forests are certified under the global gold standard for green forestry certification. Yet field studies carried out by Swedish NGOs for the past 3 years show that a remarkable number of areas logged by FSC member companies live up to neither that group’s key requirements for nature conservation nor those of the country's own Forestry Act.
This sort of controversy seems unusual in Sweden.
But in fact, logging companies are very aggressive throughout Sweden, and have increased their annual production 35% from 1990 levels according to one estimate. The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation estimates that greater than 90% of the wooded landscape has been heavily influenced by forestry, and that 1,800 woodland-dependent species are threatened by logging, accounting for 50% of all red list endangered species in the country.
This is of concern, as it is one of Europe's most forested countries and contains the most old growth forests, which are recognized as being the most diverse of the forested ecosystems. It's even home to world's oldest tree, a 9,550 year-old spruce! Sweden is thus responsible for protecting a goodly portion of the continent's biodiversity.
Swedish forest activists agree that the old-growth forest logging seriously harms the country's official conservation objectives, and telling this story will help them make their case. They were recently dismayed again when the Swedish Forest Agency approved logging of an old-growth forest in the Änok Delta, an area surrounded by nature reserves and less than one kilometer from the edge of an important UNESCO World Heritage Site wilderness, Laponia.
Now a corps of these forest defenders has begun surveying old growth forests placed on the chopping block. During annual expeditions, they collect data to help make a compelling argument for the areas’ conservation. They will again in 2011 spend weeks in the backcountry documenting attributes such as the areas' diversity of trees, flowers, and animals.
It is my plan to join one of these expeditions this August to see the areas under dispute, visit those that have been cut, hear what the activists are saying, and interview the companies and authorities who manage those forests to hear their side of the story.
The resulting images and interviews will help me write a feature article for an award-winning environmental publication with a world-wide readership that has already committed to publishing it.
A country like Sweden must do all it can to be a good model for other countries, especially when it comes to environmental stewardship. This project seeks to find out if it's doing so.
photo of forest in Anok by Tor Lundberg
This is of concern, as it is one of Europe's most forested countries and contains the most old growth forests, which are recognized as being the most diverse of the forested ecosystems. Sweden is thus responsible for protecting a goodly portion of the continent's biodiversity, much of which is in its forests.
What's worse than the overall rate of cutting in the eyes of activists is the alarming degree to which the old-growth forests themselves continue to be logged, seriously harming Sweden's official conservation objectives.
