Click the headings to open the reports
Carbon
Transitioning to nature-based solutions, together with reforestation, could sequester roughly half of historical human carbon emissions.
The evidence presented here provides a robust basis for immediate global action to enhance ecosystem stewardship as a central component of climate-change mitigation.
Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size
Researchers report that larger trees store and sequester disproportionately more carbon per tree than smaller trees, making them especially important for climate mitigation.
Forests are key components of the global carbon cycle and exert substantial feedbacks on atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations. The findings of this study help resolve previous conflicting assumptions about patterns of tree growth.
Storm
In summary, our results indicate that the frequency of windthrow in forests of southern Sweden has increased, and that this rise is linked to changes in forestry practices.
Broadleaves Reduce Storm Damage in Spruce Stands
Model results indicate that the probability of damage to a pure mature spruce stand during a Gudrun-type storm declines by more than 50% when the spruce proportion falls below 70%. In stands dominated by broadleaf species, the likelihood of damage is reduced to roughly 1%.
Growth
Higher levels of multiple ecosystem services are found in forests with more tree species
Here, across a scale of 400,000 km2, we report that tree species richness in production forests shows positive to positively hump-shaped relationships with multiple ecosystem services. These include production of tree biomass, soil carbon storage, berry production and game production potential. For example, biomass production was approximately 50% greater with five than with one tree species
Bioenergy
Growing and harvesting bioenergy crops — for example corn for ethanol or trees to fuel power plants — can be a poor use of land, a precious resource in the fight against climate change, warns a University of Michigan researcher.
Sustainable Biofuels: Today and Tomorrow
An overall estimate of the global potential of algae as a feedstock for biofuel production is problematic, due to substantial uncertainties (e.g. regarding cultivation feasibility). Bauen et al. (2009a) nevertheless report a global potential of the order of several hundred exajoules (EJ) for microalgae and several thousand EJ for macroalgae, which can be contrasted with global annual energy consumption of roughly 475 EJ. (Final paragraph, p. 51.)
Fewer biofuels, more green space
Growing and harvesting bioenergy crops — for example, corn for ethanol or trees to fuel power plants — can be a poor use of land, a precious resource in the fight against climate change, says a researcher.
Water
Forestry has a direct connection to the health of the Baltic Sea. Contemporary forestry imposes a burden on the Baltic Sea that is comparable in size to that of agriculture.
Agricultural and forest land are the two largest sources of the total load to the sea for both nitrogen and phosphorus, with 34,100 and 34,900 tonnes of nitrogen respectively, and 1,130 and 850 tonnes of phosphorus in 2014. Together these sources account for approximately 60% of the total load.
Especially in southern Sweden, planting spruce also causes substantial areas of brown soils to be gradually converted into podzols. This undoubtedly has a major impact on soil browning, since the raw humus layer beneath the litter in a coniferous forest produces large quantities of brown-coloured humic substances.
Lectures and convesations
Lecture by Mikael Karlsson, Stockholm University
This lecture presents the principles of ecosystem-based forestry and examines how it can contribute to biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration and improved water regulation.
Conversation with Knut Sturm, former Chief Forester of Lübeck
A conversation in the woods about close-to-nature forestry between Knut Sturm and Mikael Karlsson.
Forests in Politics — What Do the Parties Say?
Ahead of the 2024 EU elections, this video-podcast series features conversations with representatives from Sweden’s political parties about the state of, and sustainability in, Swedish forestry. Conducted in Swedish, the episodes examine each party’s views, policy proposals and positions on whether current forestry practices are sustainable — or not.
Conversations in alphabetical order (by surname)
Their answers to the question “Does your party consider current forestry to be sustainable?” are listed in the appendix below as Yes, No, or Mixed.
Tomas Brandberg, SD “Yes”
Sofie Eriksson, S. “Mixed”
Tage Gripenstam, C “Yes”
Carolina Gustafsson, V. “No”
Pär Holmgren, MP “No”
Elin Nilsson, L “Yes”
Carl-Wiktor Svensson, KD “Yes”
John Widegren, M “Yes”