Forest Club model projects and sites

5.1 Norway

The Norwegian forests make up 12 million ha, which is equal to 37% of the country's land surface. This is both productive and non-productive forest land. Seven million hectares is counted as productive forest (Norwegian Forest Owner Association 2000). More than 80% of the forest is privately owned (Norwegian Department of Agriculture 2000). Only 0.84% of forest in Norway is legally protected in the form of national parks and nature reserves (Norwegian Ministry of Environment 1995). The Norwegian Parliament recently passed a new protection plan, which dictates the protection of an additional 0.22% of productive forest over that, which is already protected. Sixty-six percent of the old-growth forest areas, which are currently protected in Norway have less than 100 ha productive forest in the specific protected area (Framstad et al. 1995). This is significant because it shows the very small areas of productive old-growth forests under protection.

Inventory Status

Old-growth forest inventories were carried out as part of the Verneplan from 1984-1997. The results of these inventories are included on the Norwegian maps presented with this report. There is no systematic, transparent initiative to inventory and register key habitats and biotopes in Norway (WWF 2000). The state owned Statskog SF has begun a process of key biotope inventories as well as privately owned Borregaards skoger and Norske Skog. Also some municipalities have begun registering key biotopes; however, there is a lack of transparency and uneven quality of the work. Very few of the smaller forest owners have identified key biotopes on their property. There are still major gaps in the information available on forests today in Norway.

Certification

There are no FSC-certified forests in Norway today. The Pan European Forest Certification (PEFC) initiative is supported by the Norwegian Forest Owner Association (Norges Skogeierforbund). Large portions of the forests will be ISO 14001 certified during 2000. Both these schemes are not accepted by Norwegian NGOs. ISO 14001 is not set up to protect biodiversity. The PEFC initiative is not a performance based standard and is not considered acceptable as a mechanism for forest and biodiversity protection. NGOs and some forest sector representatives have just started the process of setting up a FSC standard for forest management in Norway. The Living Forest plan launched in 1995, was not set up to develop certification but started a process of developing guidelines and standards for Norwegian forest management. The Living Forest mandates no specific protection for old-growth forests.

Protection Targets

The Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) recommends that 5% of productive forests should be protected. This 5% is sufficient if certain ecologically adapted logging practices are implemented and enforced. If these are not present NINA recommends a higher level of protection. According to NINA scientists there is a lack of large forest wilderness areas and there are big holes in the coverage of protection of several valuable forest types especially coastal forests and coastal rain forests in western and central Norway, forests in lowland areas and highly productive forests (Framstad et al. 1995).

In a recent quote, one scientist from NINA states that the amount of protected forests is far from adequate from a biodiversity standpoint. He called for the halt of industrial forestry practices, which continue to drive species to extinction (Bendiksen, pers. com.).

Monetary Compensation for Protection

Officially in Norway monetary compensation is available to landowners for the protection of forest land. Compensation levels are set at the estimated value of the land and ownership remains in the hands of the original landowner. Until quite recently, the agriculture department has not been willing to compensate landowners for protection of key biotopes. In the year 2000 the parliament has decided that compensation will be allocated. However, the government has not yet decided on this amount.

Back to The Last of The Last title page

Back to Forest Club Publications page