A birdhouse mounted on a tree trunk in a clearcut forest in Sweden, considered habitat creation by the forest industry. Marcus Westberg Photography / Facebook
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The two European countries with the most forested land — Sweden and Finland — are not making enough effort to protect their old-growth and primary forests, according to a new report released by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Thursday.
The report, Primary and Old-Growth Forests at Risk in Finland and Sweden, said the two northern European countries are putting these unique ecosystems at risk while falling short of pledges made under the European Union’s Green Deal and Biodiversity Strategy.
“Publicly available evidence shows both Finland and Sweden are deviating from EU policies,” said forest expert Mai Suiminen with WWF Finland, in a press release from WWF. “This cannot continue if we are serious about tackling the climate and biodiversity crises.”
The objective of the EU Green Deal is to strictly protect old-growth and primary forests in Europe.
However, the Swedish and Finnish governments are exploiting loopholes and allowing logging in forests that must be safeguarded. Every year, thousands of acres of forests that have high conservation value are cut down, despite being essential for biodiversity, climate stability and long-term ecological health.
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WWF emphasized that the protection of these forests is not only important for achieving Europe’s biodiversity and climate goals, but for maintaining the political credibility of the EU.
“Forest protection isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s fundamental to the success of a sustainable and circular bioeconomy,” said Peter Roberntz, WWF Sweden forest expert, in the press release.
According to the Swedish Forest Industries Federation, forestry supports roughly 140,000 jobs in the Nordic country, reported AFP.
Forests are the planet’s second-largest carbon sink after oceans, helping to mitigate climate change.
The EU’s Nature Restoration Law stipulates that by 2030 one-fifth of natural areas — including marshes and all forests, not only protected areas — must be restored to the same state they were in 75 years ago.
“The current government has shown a low ambition to strictly protect primary and old-growth forests on private lands,” WWF said. “Consequently, Sweden has an ongoing loss of primary and old-growth forests due to clear-cutting.”
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Peter Kullgren, Sweden’s rural affairs minister, said the criticism was unfounded.
“Sweden is a leader in forest protection,” Kullgren told AFP in a written statement. “Over 25 percent of Sweden’s forests have already been taken out of production, and over 10 percent are already strictly protected. This makes Sweden one of the EU countries closest to achieving the biodiversity goal.”
An article published last year by the Swedish Species Information Centre at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) said the country’s forests are not in the same shape they were in in 1950.
The article argued that much of Sweden’s forest biodiversity was not faring well.
“Logging of high nature-value forests is one of the main reasons why forest species” are threatened, the SLU article said.
SLU added that sufficiently ancient forests in Sweden have become “rare,” as “only a few percent of productive forest land can be qualified as old in the biological sense,” reported AFP.
WWF listed several recommendations in its report, including respecting the rights of the Indigenous Samí People and imposing a moratorium on logging of delineated old-growth and primary forests in Sweden.
WWF called upon the European Commission to track implementation of the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy.
“The consequences of inaction would be severe. Continued logging of primary and old-growth forests will not only undermine Europe’s environmental goals but also erode public trust in national governments and the EU itself,” said Anke Schulmeister-Oldenhove, manager of forests at the WWF European Policy Office, in the press release. “The EU Commission’s workshop in Helsinki must be a turning point. We urge decision-makers to put words into action and ensure Europe’s last great forests are protected before it’s too late.”
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