100 football pitches with natural forest. Daily.
The forests that have never been cut down before, the so-called continuity forests, are now disappearing so quickly.
In a new report, the Norwegian Forestry Agency finds that decades of large-scale clearcutting have pushed hundreds of forest-dwelling species to their limits. And rather than slowing down, the rate of deforestation in the most protected forests has recently increased.
– From 2022 we will see a big increase. At that time, 6,000 hectares of these forests were cut down every year; today the figure is up to 26,000 hectares. “Forests, which are of enormous importance for biodiversity and our threatened species, are under high deforestation pressure,” says Camilla Andersson, an investigator at the Norwegian Forestry Agency and co-author of the report.
Missed today A total of 1.2 million hectares of these valuable forests below the mountains provide some protection. If today’s rates of deforestation and protection continue, it is estimated that in 25 years about half a million hectares have had time to receive protection, while 670,000 hectares have been deforested. This would mean the loss of five Öland worth of natural forests.
If the state instead completely stops protecting new forests, all 1.2 million hectares will be deforested within about 46 years, according to the Norwegian Forestry Agency.
Camilla Andersson explains that it is not only possible to plant new trees to replace felled trees.
– We can’t get these forests back if they’re gone. There will be irreversible losses because it takes so long to develop and create these habitats and structures, she says.
Currently, forestry leaves some environmental consideration in the form of saved trees and marginal zones when logging. But the Norwegian Forestry Authority rejects this as a solution to save the shrinking diversity in practice.
– Our analysis shows that only a small percentage of the consideration can act as habitat for the most demanding species. It is forests that have been managed without deforestation and large areas that have the greatest impact, says Camilla Andersson.
The forestry authority warns of head-on collisions with the history of the industry organization Skogsindustriern. In a new public opinion campaign, the industry claims that public knowledge is wrong.
Among other things, they point out that for every tree felled, two to three new trees are planted and that Sweden has twice as much “old forest” (older than 140 years) today as it did 30 years ago.
But according to the Swedish Forestry Agency, the industry is talking about the wrong things.
– Old-growth forests are increasing, but natural forests are decreasing. A cleared forest largely lacks the prerequisites to develop into a natural forest; it takes several hundred years, says Camilla Andersson.
The new report gets to the point also a gap between science and government policy. As DN previously reported, the government has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forestry Commission to commit to an absolute minimum level in the national plan for the EU’s new nature restoration law.
By choosing 1995 as the reference year, the government has in practice established that Sweden’s forests already meet EU requirements and has zeroed out the need to create new forests.
However, the new report from the Norwegian Forestry Agency points to a completely different need. To even reach an ecological pain point – where 20 percent of nature’s original habitats are preserved – 1.56 million hectares of forest habitat currently need to be excluded from forestry or restored. That’s as much as five Gotland.
If the government sticks to the reference year 1995, the clock is ticking for the last unprotected natural forests.
– Since we have the perspective of preserving biological diversity, the 1995 areas are not interesting. “We will not meet ecological needs if we continue to cut down these forests at this rate,” says Camilla Andersson.
Facts.The natural crisis in the Swedish forest
● In southern Swedish counties such as Blekinge and Skåne, over 30 percent of the forest species disadvantaged by clear-cutting have now disappeared regionally.
● In total, at least 66 forest-dwelling species have completely disappeared from Swedish nature.
● The number is likely underestimated due to a time lag in ecosystems, a so-called extinction debt. The phenomenon means isolated species are at risk of extinction decades after their habitats are deforested.
● In an untouched natural forest, a pine tree can live for 500 years and a spruce tree for 300 years, while the average harvest age in today’s forestry industry has fallen to under 100 years.
● More than half of the country’s productive forest area is currently 60 years old or younger, while only about 5 percent have had time to live past 160 years.
● In order for sensitive mosses to survive in a clearing, the saved groups of trees must be at least half a hectare in size, but usually significantly smaller areas remain.
Source: Swedish Forestry Agency (“Biological diversity in forests”, 2026)
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