The Ecologist

Environmental hero with a focus on living forests

The National Property Board Sweden (SFV) manages 6.5 million hectares of land, which is around one-seventh of Sweden´s total area.

The productive forest land is comprised of around 870, 000 hectares. Of this forest land, approximately 450, 000 hectares are formally protected in the form of nature reserves. SFV is responsible for identifying those forests that are not already protected in reserves for the purpose of protecting and preserving additional environments with high natural and cultural value. Our goal is:

• Increased burning activities

Burning in order to preserve

There are fewer forest fires today due to man´s possibility to limit them when they do occur. Despite the fact that forest fires can be devastating, they also serve a good purpose and give rise to rich biological diversity that would not exist otherwise. Therefore, SFV has a responsibility, through controlled efforts, to increase the area of burned forest land and in that way benefit the biological diversity and contribute to ensuring that we have living forests.

Everyone who contributes to creating conditions for this is an environmental hero. Several examples of efforts that have been carried out are presented below.

Ananasse´s primeval forest preserved

Ananasse is a huge area of ancient pine forests just west of Muddus National Park in the county of Norrbotten. A comprehensive survey and analysis resulted in Ananasse being given environmental protection status in 2001. This means that the area must be kept as it is; no normal forestry may be carried out there.

Forest fires as a conservation measure in Sweden

In 2007, the National Property Board Sweden burned 80 hectares of forest land, including land at Appoludden near Njallaluokta, at Älgholmen in Hornavan, past Gardamyrsvägen at Låitavare and in Inviken in Strömsund. This involved both prescribed burning and conservation burning.

We carry out prescribed burning to give the new plants a good growing environment with lots of nutrition and little competition for other vegetation. The purpose of conservation burning is to increase the forest´s nature value. Forests are allowed to develop freely without caretaking measures for the purpose of improving living conditions for plants and animals. For example, there are a great number of beetles that live in fire-damaged trees, which in turn act as food for different species of woodpeckers.

• Read more about forest fires as a conservation measure

Låitavare forest landscape in Sweden

SFV divides the cultivated forests into different forest landscapes. The goal of this demarcation is that the cultivation of forests will be adapted to the specific ecological forest conditions that exist in the various forest landscapes. One of these forest areas is Låitavare, which is located in the westernmost parts of the municipality of Dorotea. Of the area´s approximately 19,100 hectares, 12, 500 hectares is productive forest land. The landscape is characterized by rolling hills with about equal parts of pine and spruce forests. Thanks to the effects of earlier forest fires, there is a relatively large amount of deciduous trees located there. Humans have created fires in this area throughout time; initially these were hunters and gatherers who wanted to have better hunting grounds, and then later, settlers who burned in order to get better pastures. In 2007, SFV used prescribed burning on 38 hectares of forest land in Låitavare.

• Read more about the National Property Board Sweden's forest landscapes.