Inventory Status

The last nation wide inventory of old-growth forests was compiled in the 1980s. This inventory had very strict criteria excluding forests with any considerable evidence of human impact, which resulted in the exclusion of many valuable forests. Regional inventories have been performed and there is an ongoing nation wide key habitats inventory (WWF 2000). An inventory of forests currently under legal protection has been collected by the National Forest Inventory. This inventory concluded that the information available on the actual area and the qualities present in existing nature reserves was of varying quality and depth (Fridman 1999). A 1997 government report found that availability of sufficient data covering all areas must be improved in order to identify protection needs and areas (Statens Offentliga Utredningar 1997).

Certification in Sweden

There is no clear overview of the amount of old-growth forest protected by third party verified certification of forest management. Sweden was the first country in the world to have a national standard for sustainable forest management agreed upon by industry and NGOs under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) principles and criteria. Currently 40% of Swedish forests are certified under the FSC system. Under the Swedish Forest Stewardship Council standard certified forest owners must set aside at least 5% of ecologically valuable forest land or representative habitats from productive forest land. This five percent is above and beyond already protected areas. The set aside is to take place within the first 5 years of certification and be documented in an overall landscape plan or forest management plan. A simplified calculation of the amount of forest that will be protected in this way would amount to more than 450,000 ha. However, this 5% is not necessarily of high conservation value, it may simply be the most ecologically valuable, relatively to that the forest owner has.

Protection Targets

In 1994 new forest legis-lation in Sweden was passed which officially put pro-duction and environmental goals on the same priority level. In 1997 the govern-ment published a gap ana-lysis carried out for the Ministry of the Environment by two leading Swedish conservation biologists. The report recommended that from a 40-year perspective ("the long run") 9-16%, 2.2 million ha of forest below the montane forests must be protected to ensure bio-diversity. From a 10-20-year perspective approximately 900,000 ha or 4.2% more than is protected today should be protected (Angelstam and Andersson 1997).

The old-growth forest
Jelka-Rimakåbbå -
a TRN hotspot (Sweden).
Photo: Ola Larsson.

Subsequent government reports by the environmental protection agency recognize that there are 900,000 ha of high conservation value forest that fall outside of national parks and nature reserve boundaries (Skogsvårdstyrelsen 1999). According to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Forestry Board (Skogstyrelsen) prognoses two-thirds of this area, 600,000 ha, is expected to be protected by industry's voluntary measures (Statens Offentliga Utredningar 1997).

In 1998 the Swedish government officially set a goal of creating an additional 250,000 ha of nature reserves in the next 10 years and that further 25,000 ha of forest should be protected as biotope protection or nature protection agreement (Skogsvårdstyrelsen 1999). However, other published reports from the forest management agencies state the pace of the creation of nature reserves is not sufficient to secure the naturally valuable areas (Skogsvårdstyrelsen 1998).

The trend in Sweden is to rely heavily on voluntary actions by forest industry and private owners to protect valuable forests. A recent governmental report recommended that the government takes a more proactive role and that this concentration on voluntary measures be made more precise. The report recommended that long-term quantitative goals of the amount of forest that should be classified in the different categories be set by the state forest management agencies (Riksrevisionsverket 1999).

Monetary Compensation for Protection

To reach protection goals the Swedish Parliament allocated funds in the fall of 1998 to make monetary compensation available for the creation of nature reserves and protected areas. During the early 1990s funding for the creation of nature reserves has been around 190 million SEK/year (22.4 million EUR). Pressure from environmental organizations resulted in additional funding to aid in reserve building. The 1999 budget added an additional 150 million SEK (17.7 million EUR) and the 2000 budget gives an additional 50 million SEK (5.9 million EUR) to reach a level of 500 million SEK/year (58.8 million EUR) by 2001. This money is specifically for the purchase of forest land to be put under protection, it does not cover the administrative or initiative costs. Despite this increase in funds a recent report by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation claims that county government programs to use this money to purchase valuable forest areas are moving too slowly. Many people working within the county governments highlight the lack of personnel and training necessary to implement the policy and funding for the creation of new nature reserves (SSNC, 2000).

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