The Norwegian Forestry Agency recently presented a comprehensive forest analysis, SKA 22, with six different scenarios of possible future management of the forest and its consequences.
Fellings have increased for many years and reached record levels last year.
At the same time, environmental concerns have also increased in recent years.
- But if in the future we are to increase both fellings and environmental considerations, then we are faced with a choice, we have to choose one or the other, we cannot increase both, says district manager Helena Eriksson at the Forestry Agency.
Increased requirements for adjustment
The reason why fellings will not be able to continue to increase to the same extent as until now is because the ceiling has almost been reached in terms of "highest sustainable felling volume" - or simply put: going forward there will be extremely limited access to felling-ready forest on timber production lands.
At the same time as the demand for timber is estimated to increase, so too are the demands for Sweden to restructure forestry in order to achieve both environmental goals and international environmental commitments, for example biological diversity.
The Norwegian Forestry Agency states that the six scenarios lead to very different results and that there is a risk of increased conflict over the forest in the county.
You can see more about the scenarios and consequences for the county in the clip above with district manager Helena Eriksson at the Forestry Agency.