New report: Forest monitor – A tool to monitor and protect EU’s natural forest heritage
A new report from Protect the Forest Sweden analyzes the contemporary forest situation in Sweden. In the report method descriptions and validation data for the map service Forest Monitor are presented. The report presents data showing the loss and the threat to old forest and continuity forest in Sweden. One chapter analyzes the “old forest” trends and underlying statistics, revealing that the statistical increase in “old forest” the past 3 decades is a mirage. The report also reviews Sweden’s land use and forest history and presents a Swedish forest vision for 2030. The data in the report reveals that tens of thousands of hectares of natural forest are notified for final felling.
The report shows that it is entirely possible to monitor and map the EU’s natural forest heritage, using a combination of remote sensing, species and habitat inventories, and machine learning. The organisation Protect the Forest Sweden, which is behind Forest Monitor, hopes that the initiative will inspire the EU and authorities in the Union’s member states to develop holistic models for forest monitoring, landscape planning and protection of conservation value forests.
– It shows that meaningful forest monitoring is entirely achievable—and that the real barrier is not technical capacity, but political will, says Kelsey Perlman, Forest and Climate Campaigner, FERN.
Forest Monitor [skogsmonitor.se] is an online map service and tool to monitor and protect the northern EU’s natural heritage. Forest Monitor is a unique online map service that brings together important data and map layers of valuable forest habitats in one place. The map layers show where there are, or could be, forests with high conservation values, but also social values and forests with large carbon stocks throughout Sweden.
– Our website and our data now exist and are used daily by many people who want to know where in the landscape old forest is likely to be found, whether it is threatened by logging, and whether someone has already been there and found rare or red-listed species, says Elin Götmark, spokesperson of Protect the Forest.
Environmental legislation across the European Union is facing mounting pressure from a growing deregulatory agenda. Over recent months, we have seen key elements of the EU Green Deal come under political attack, from efforts to weaken the Nature Restoration Law to resistance against the EU Deforestation Regulation. The proposed Forest Monitoring Law, a legislative effort to expand and standardize forest data collection across member states, is no exception.
– The Swedish government, under pressure from the forestry industry, has lobbied against the EU Forest Monitoring Law, arguing that forest monitoring is too complicated and expensive. Well, we have proved them wrong on a shoestring budget, says Elin Götmark, spokesperson of Protect the Forest.
The urgency of the situation cannot be stressed enough. With today’s rapid logging rate in Sweden, scenarios and estimates made by researchers, authorities and experts indicate that most of Sweden’s remaining continuity forests and old conservation value forests, outside protected areas, will be lost within a few decades.
– We believe that Sweden suffers from an enormous domestic blindness, when it comes to understanding how unique it is within the EU, with forests with this high degree of naturalness and ecological continuity, says Jon Andersson, Project manager and data developer at Protect the Forest´s web service Forest Monitor.
To measure the trend for “old forest”, data from the plot survey from the Swedish National Forest Inventory (SNFI) database is used by the Swedish authorities. In the last 3 decades, the SNFI has shown an increased area of old forest in Sweden. Meanwhile the rate of clear-cutting of continuity forests remains high. In the report we explain why this is a so-called statistical mirage. How can we get more old forest, while at the same time the old forests with long continuity are being logged?
– We do not question the data from the SNFI, but we believe that it must be interpreted more analytically and holistically than it has been so far, and supplemented with remote sensing and extensive inventories in order to describe the actual trends for species and habitats, says Viktor Säfve, Project manager and communicator at Protect the Forest’s web service Forest Monitor.
The mapping of potential older forest and continuity forest presented in the report has different degrees of accuracy and probability, and Forest Monitor are constantly striving to refine and update it in order to increase precision and accuracy.
– Some claim that remote sensing has poor precision and therefore should not be used for monitoring of EU forests, and that only plot surveys have high enough precision. We believe that both are needed, says Jon Andersson.
Download and read the report here.
Contact: skogsmonitor@skyddaskogen.se
Jon Andersson: jon.andersson@skyddaskogen.se
Viktor Säfve: viktor.safve@skyddaskogen.se
The Forest Monitor Website