You can hear why Stora Enso no longer wants the information to be shown to the Norwegian Forestry Agency in the video above.
The more than 9,000 areas worth protecting that are affected are located on forest land in several counties: Jämtland, Värmland, Dalarna, Gävleborg and Uppsala.
It is primarily the forestry company Stora Enso that is affected. The company declines an interview and instead responds via email:
“We do not want to participate in an interview at this stage, as we will discuss the matter again with the Norwegian Forestry Agency in the coming days,” writes Robert Berg at Stora Enso to SVT.
The most hidden information concerns Stora Enso
The information on specially protected forest that is now no longer displayed applies to Stora Enso’s part: 7,778 key biotopes, i.e. smaller areas of specially protected forest.
For the company Person Invest it concerns 185 key biotopes, Karl Hedin 35 and for Kopparsfors Skog 1,227 key biotopes.
The information about these areas is therefore no longer displayed in the Norwegian Forestry Agency’s digital map services. This has received strong criticism from both environmental law experts and environmental organisations.
Felling of key biotopes not permitted
Knowing where key biotopes are located on the forest lands is of great importance not only for the supervisory authority Skogsstyrelsen, but also for the forest companies themselves. Environmentally certified companies may not harvest key biotopes according to the certification requirements.
Most forest companies today are connected to the environmental certification FSC.