Congratulations to Protect the Forest’s employee Jon Andersson and co-founder Viktor Säfve who are awarded this year’s Forest Award from the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. They are praised for their work in initiating and developing the web service Skogsmonitor, which in an educational and easily accessible way brings to life the state of the Swedish forest.
Through the web service Skogsmonitor, which is run by the association Protect the Forest, they have also contributed to the development of new knowledge by mapping forests that may have high biological values. The work has filled important knowledge gaps about the Swedish forest landscape and the map has in a short time become a valuable tool for researchers, authorities and other actors working for more sustainable forestry.
“In order to protect the forest, we first need to know where the valuable forests are. With Skogsmonitor, Jon Andersson and Viktor Säfve have facilitated this. By making the values of the forest visible, they have put knowledge on the map and given all actors in society better conditions to take responsibility for the future of the forest,” says Beatrice Rindevall, chair of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.
“We are very pleased that Sweden’s largest environmental organization is giving us at Skogsmonitor its forest award. Even though we are both initiators and project managers, it is important to point out that there is an entire team that develops and is behind Skogsmonitor. We want to highlight our fantastic colleagues – remote analyst Hainner Aparicio, webmaster Karim Osman, and last but not least Mats Troeng, our rock to consultant and map service developer, says Viktor Säfve
Jon Andersson is a GIS expert, conservationist and a PhD in biology. He has extensive experience of forest issues from research, government work and consulting and is currently active in Umeå.
Viktor Säfve is co-founder of Protect the Forest. He works with issues related to forest ecology and forest monitoring, among other things. Today he lives in Närke where he and his family run a forest farm.
Through their work within the association Protect the Forest, they have together developed Skogsmonitor and contributed to making forests with high conservation values visible in Sweden.
The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation’s Forest Prize is awarded to draw attention to efforts that contribute to more sustainable forestry, strengthen biodiversity and highlight the forest’s social values.
Skogsmonitor is further developed, administered and financed, through project funds from the Postcode Lottery Foundation and private donations.
