Formally protected forest land, voluntary set-asides, consideration patches and unproductive forest land 2020

New formally protected forest land amounted to 14 000 hectares

Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2021-06-30 9.30

In 2020, formally protected forest land increased by almost 14 000 hectares, 11 700 hectares of which is productive forest land. This corresponds to 0.1 percent of all forest land in Sweden. Voluntary set-asides increased by 4 300 hectares, which corresponds to 0.02 percent of Sweden’s forest land area. The area of consideration patches is estimated to have increased by almost 25 900 hectares, which corresponds to 0.1 percent of the total area of forest land.

This is the third consecutive year in which Statistics Sweden presents statistics on four different types of forest land: formally protected forest land, voluntary set-asides, consideration patches for regeneration felling, and unproductive forest land. These statistics are produced in a collaboration between Statistics Sweden, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish Forest Agency, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

At the end of 2020, formally protected forest land amounted to almost 2.4 million hectares, which corresponds to just under 9 percent of Sweden’s total forest land. Of the formally protected forest land, 1.3 million hectares consists of productive forest land, which corresponds to almost 6 percent of Sweden’s total area of productive forest land. Voluntary set-asides amounted to more than 1.3 million hectares, which corresponds to almost 6 percent of Sweden’s area of productive forest land and just under 5 percent of the total area of forest land.

A preliminary estimate of consideration patches for regeneration felling amounted to an area of almost 0.5 million hectares in 2020, which corresponds to about 2 percent of Sweden’s total area of productive forest land. Sweden’s total area of unproductive forest land amounted to 4.4 million hectares, although large parts are overlapped by formal protection. Unproductive forest land without formal protection amounts to 3.1 million hectares, or 11 percent of Sweden’s total area of forest land.

Areas and percentages of the four types are not summed in the official statistics. This is due to several factors, including major legal distinctions between the types concerning how they can affect land use on the area where they are located. The methods used to calculate the areas also differ greatly, mainly based on which data is available as a basis for the statistics. Furthermore, these statistics are not measured in relation to national or international goals. All this means that aggregates may be misleading.

Types of forest land in the statistics, as a percentage of all forest land

Source: Statistics Sweden, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish Forest Agency, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences National Forest Inventory. The size of the circles shows the actual proportions. The percentages in the figure should not be added together due to methodological and legal differences between the parts.

Types of forest land in the statistics, as a percentage of all productive forest land

Formally protected forest land below the subalpine border

Sweden’s subalpine region extends across 4 out of Sweden’s 21 counties: Dalarna, Jämtland, Västerbotten, and Norrbotten. At the end of 2020, 561 000 hectares of productive forest land in the subalpine region were formally protected. This corresponds to half of all productive forest land in the region. Outside the subalpine region, 752 000 hectares of productive forest land was formally protected, which corresponds to 3 percent of the total area of productive forest land outside the subalpine region.

In total, 1.4 million hectares of subalpine forest land was formally protected. This corresponds to almost 57 percent of the total forest land area in the subalpine region. In the rest of the country, 909 000 hectares were formally protected, or 4 percent of the total forest land area.

The largest areas of formally protected land outside the subalpine region were located in Norrbotten County, at 241 000 hectares. This was followed by Västerbotten and Dalarna counties, with about 90 000 hectares each. The figures refer to 31 December 2020.

Definitions and explanations

Forest land

Under the Forestry Act (1979:429), forest land is defined as a coherent area in which trees are higher than five metres and the crown cover is more than ten percent or there are conditions to attain this height and crown cover without production-enhancing measures.

Productive forest land

Under the Forestry Act, productive forest land is defined as forest land that, according to generally accepted criteria, can produce on average at least one cubic metre of wood per hectare and year.

Types of forest land

The four subsets included in the statistics are called “types” here. They are described in the government assignment (N2018/04159/SK) as the subsets on which these statistics are to be distributed. The types are:

formally protected forest land,
voluntary set-asides,
consideration patches for regeneration felling, and
unproductive forest land.

Formally protected forest land

Forest land regulated by laws and ordinances, as well as agreements entered into and individual decisions. In these statistics, it is a collective term for various instruments for the protection of forest land. These are present in both productive and on unproductive forest land. The instruments included in the statistics are:

National parks
Nature reserves with regulations against forestry
Habitat protection areas
Natura 2000 with designated forest habitats
Nature conservation agreements, including “ekoparker” (nature reserves) and the White-Backed Woodpecker Action Plan
Agreement between government agencies between the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Fortifications Agency
Habitat protection areas and nature reserves for which the decision is not final and binding
Land compensation for the establishment of nature reserves.

Voluntary set-asides

Areas of productive forest land on which landowners voluntarily decided not to carry out any measures that can harm natural values, cultural environments, or social values.

Consideration patches

Small areas of productive forest land that have been made available, voluntarily or pursuant to the Swedish Forest Care Act, for regeneration felling.

Unproductive forest land

Forest land that, according to generally accepted criteria, is not able to produce on average at least one cubic metre of wood per hectare and year. Examples of unproductive forest land include subalpine birch forests, tree- or shrub-covered mires, and sparsely wooded rocky land areas.

The subalpine region

The map shows five Swedish geographical regions that are used in the statistics, with the subalpine region in a light colour in the north-western part of Sweden. The other four regions are defined as the land below the subalpine region.

Changes over time

The underlying data for all parts of the statistics has been improved and expanded during the past year. This leads to a better quality of the statistics, but means that comparisons with previous years should be made with caution.

Publication

A more detailed report of this survey is published in the Statistical Report:

Formally protected forest land, voluntary set-asides, consideration patches and unproductive forest land (pdf)

Next publishing will be

The next statistical news in this series will be published in 2022.

Statistical Database

More information is available in the Statistical Database

Feel free to use the facts from this statistical news but remember to state Source: Statistics Sweden.