Forests and rivers

National Property Board Sweden (SFV) preserves and manages the state's forest to protect and improve the forest environment while also producing timber. Forestry on state-owned land should set an example for other forest managers.

Since time immemorial

Swedish Forest Service and Vattenfall hydropower board were privatised in the 1990s. Forests, rivers and mountains that were considered matters of national concern, national assets which were to be kept under state ownership. This was partly to do with nurturing and protecting cultural values for the future. The most important reason why the state retained the land above the limit of cultivation and the mountainous areas used for reindeer pasture was the powerful entitlement that reindeer farmers have on the land. This forest and land came under the remit of the National Property Board.

One seventh of Sweden land area

The size of SFV's land is equiavalent to approximately one seventh of the total land area of Sweden. There is enough land for each and every one of the earth's population. Two thirds of the land are protected in reserves. SFV manages the state's land area west of the limit of cultivation in the northern provinces of Norrbotten and Västerbotten, and the land used for reindeer pasture further south in Jämtland.

SFV also administers a number of forest properties surrounding royal estates in southern Sweden. The 400 or so islets belonging to the Crown along the Swedish coast and the river districts along the protected Norrland rivers are also managed by SFV.