Christmas greeting from Protect the Forest’s board
Merry Christmas forest fighters! Thanks to all of you, Protect the Forest has won many partial victories and celebrates many highlights from 2025: we have spread the knowledge about our most threatened forest ecosystems; We have continued to document the unique natural values of our Swedish forests, got large companies to boycott raw materials from controversial felling of forests worthy of protection, and are gaining more and more support for a scientifically based forest policy that is truly sustainable. Thank you for all the support and encouragement during the year, and towards new victories in 2026! Wishes, the entire Board of Protect the Forest
Our first highlight is the success of the forestSCAndal campaign
Protect the Forest’s international work has grown, not least through the campaign “Stop the Swedish Forest SCAndal”. Today, more than 23,000 people from all over the world have already signed a petition calling on companies to stop doing business with the forest company SCA, until they stop felling forests with high conservation values and respect indigenous peoples’ rights. Food giant Nestlé has already stopped buying virgin fiber from SCA – we aim to influence more companies. If you have not signed the petition yet, go to www.forestSCAndal.org
Our second highlight is the progress of forest monitor
Skogsmonitor has had a productive and intensive year in 2025 with a new expanded website launched just before Christmas, a new layer for potential deciduous forest with conservation values in southern Sweden, the release of two reports, one on the deciduous forest layer and a comprehensive report on Skogsmonitor. To this can be added many lectures, and last but not least, two new and extensive projects – Boreal Amazon and Carbon in our forests, which receive support from the Postcode Lottery Foundation.
Highlights from our Forest Ambassador Sebastian Kirppu
The year has had several courses on forest inventory and species knowledge and many new forest interested participants have appeared. The courses have been at Lindsberg’s training center but also with various forest groups in the country who wanted to learn more about how to inventory forests.
During the year, several endangered forests have also been inventoried, and in most cases the forests have been allowed to remain thanks to the certification’s rules on high conservation values or the legislation’s rules on protected species.
However, some forests with high conservation values have also been felled in violation of both certification and legislation, which clearly shows that Swedish forestry is not to be trusted and is still depleting the biodiversity of our forests despite promises and international agreements to stop the depletion by 2030.
The third highlight we celebrate is the Forest Festival
This year’s Forest Festival took place July 18-20 in Åfallet Forest Garden, southern Närke. It was a warm festival in a double sense, around 30 degrees in the shade, and with many warm and inspiring conversations, meetings and activities.
The Forest Festival is an inspiring meeting place for forest enthusiasts, forest garden enthusiasts and those committed to the environment. The festival is the Nordic region’s largest meeting place for forest activists and this time over 300 people from 6 countries participated.
This year’s themes were the forest and climate, biodiversity, forest gardens, humanity’s environmental challenges, close-to-nature forestry and forest ecology, etc.
The festival is both a knowledge-spreading activity and a festive tribute to environmental work and everyone who is committed to the forest, a way to meet and inspire each other. The festival is unique in that it is a meeting place between cultural workers, educators, forest activists, researchers and practitioners in close-to-nature forestry, forest gardens and nature conservation.
Another big highlight we celebrate is our boreal mushroom project
In the spring of 2025, we started the Boreal Mushroom Forests Mushroom Project. We work with soil fungi in boreal forests, where many endangered species have their main distribution but where knowledge about occurrence and distribution is still insufficient, with large white spots on the map. Our work includes mapping, inventory, knowledge gathering, knowledge dissemination and networking activities.
In September, we gathered actors from Sweden and Norway for a symposium on boreal limestone coniferous forests in the Råneå river valley. The program included excursions, lectures, important networking and good conversations with exchange of experiences and knowledge. And yes, we made fun finds too, including jewel spider, new to Norrbotten. The nearest find of the species to the south is in Matfors outside Härnösand, 1980! (Read more in Protect the Forest’s calendar slot 17/12 on instagram).
Already this first year, we have identified previously unknown limestone coniferous forests, produced new knowledge about red-listed fungi and made discoveries that are new, and some downright sensational, for Norrbotten, Västernorrland, Västerbotten and the country[PW1] . In 2026, we will continue with inventories, analyses and knowledge dissemination. During the first quarter, we will also launch our website where we will share results and updates on species finds and inventories.
And one more thing: the area is huge. We won’t be able to do this ourselves. Therefore, in 2026, we are developing information support for those of you who want to go out and take inventory. We need your help, and together we can do so much more!
We are also celebrating the launch of our new Forest Webinar series
In November 2025, Protect the Forest launched a webinar series on the forest and forest policy, where actors with different backgrounds and expertise are invited to lecture and discuss with the participants. The webinars take place twice a month. Keep an eye on your inbox, facebook group and our social media to not miss these fantastic lectures!
The Climate & Forest project has been featured in the nature podcast
The association continues to work on the issue of the climate and the forest and spreads knowledge, among other things, in podcast format and on social media.
We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and that we will see you next year for continued commitment to our forests
With warm and forest greetings from the entire team in Protect the Forest