You can hear the Norwegian Forestry Agency's Johan Åberg tell more about it in the clip.

The reason why fewer and fewer protected forest areas receive so-called formal protection is that the Norwegian Forestry Agency has received less and less money from the state for the purpose, at the same time that timber prices and property prices have risen, according to the authority.

- We see a direct connection between how much money we get to compensate landowners when they get the forest formally protected and how much we then protect.

Now we have received less money and at the same time we have had to prioritize compensation for forest owners who have not been allowed to cut down forests near the mountains, says Johan Åberg, specialist in area protection at the Norwegian Forestry Agency.

One third of previous protection

He adds:

- In a longer perspective, the area protected by the Norwegian Forestry Agency has decreased by a third if we compare it to how it looked in the early 2000s.

So that's quite a reduction.

In 2022, the Norwegian Forestry Agency established a formal protection of a total of 1,200 hectares of forest worth protecting on productive forest land, forest with high natural values ​​that was thereby saved from clear-cutting.

One hectare is about two football pitches.

The level of newly formed "protected areas" was a record low and is surpassed only by the year before, in 2021, when the levels were the lowest ever, the Norwegian Forestry Agency's latest compilation shows.

Less and less valuable forest is protected

In 2021, only 980 hectares were protected.

The development has been the same in Jämtland County as for the country as a whole.

Between the years 2021 and 2022, the level was low and although there is a marginal increase between the years – from 87 hectares to 95 – it is a sharp reduction in a longer time perspective.

2016 was the peak year in terms of the largest area of ​​forest protected – when 208 hectares received formal protection.

Since then, the area has steadily decreased.

"Heavier responsibility for landowners"

In order to reach the goal Living forests, forests worth protecting must be saved.

The Riksdag has decided that.

Sweden also has international commitments to protect biological diversity, for example through the agreement reached at the UN meeting on biological diversity before Christmas.

But the grants for protecting valuable nature have decreased significantly - both to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency/county administrations and to the Norwegian Forestry Agency.

- With the lower allocations for forest protection, the responsibility falls more heavily on the landowners to preserve forests worthy of protection without compensation, notes Johan Åberg at the Norwegian Forestry Agency.