“Strongly increased deforestation in Europe – Sweden worst”
“The loss of forest biomass is most pronounced in Sweden”
“Sweden is, together with Finland, a world leader in deforestation”
These are headlines that have been circulating in articles and on social media. It all started with an article in the respected journal Nature four years ago. A study commissioned by the European Commission. There, the researchers have used satellite data from Global Forest Watch and claims that Sweden and Finland account for more than half of the increase in all deforestation that occurs in Europe.rce institute an article about that woodland with highRecently also published World Resou trees in Sweden has decreased by 20 percent.
SVT’s review of geodata and satellite images shows that the information is directly incorrect and researchers have begun to be reluctant to come out with corrections.
– We have to spend a lot of time reaching out with our message; that these rambling headlines are not true, says Jonas Fridman, forester and forestry doctor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.d
Detailed image of Swedish forest
Fridman has worked as program manager for The national forest assessment for many years. The mapping that gives a detailed picture of the forest in Sweden.
– We have nothing against remote sensing, but Global Forest Watch is built to look at the forest from a global perspective. It is not possible to adapt the algorithms for all areas around the world. For the Nordic countries, these models are derailing.
Isn’t there some truth in this? Logged area and extracted volume have increased in Sweden?
– Yes, that’s right. But that is because we have more forest per hectare, the forest has become much denser. We have twice as much volume as 100 years ago.
– Then there is a huge desire for wood raw material. Everyone wanted wooden decks during corona and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed up the price of forest, which attracts forest owners to cut down more.
The forest must fulfill many goals
The forest has become a high-priority political issue, among other things to reach the EU’s climate goals. Sweden has committed to sequester ten percent more carbon dioxide to contribute to reduced emissions.
At the same time, Sweden must achieve the goal of biological diversity where species must be preserved and the forest is an important energy source for extracting biofuel.