Oxfordshire Woodland Group

More than half of the land area in Sweden, comprising 23.1 million hectares, is productive forest land. This compares with about 13% of the UK covered with trees comprising about 3 million hectares. The Swedish forest area almost corresponds to the size of Great Britain. The Swedish forests are dominated by conifers, Norway spruce and Scots pine, making up about 85% of the total standing volume. Birch is the most common broadleafed tree with trees such as oak, beech, ash and elm also being present in the southern part of Sweden, where they comprise 25% of the growing stock

About half of the Swedish forest area is owned by private, small-scale, forest-owners, often called “family forestry”. In total there are about 350,000 private forest-owners in Sweden, of which 70% live on their properties. The average forest area in family forestry is 47 hectares. Private forest companies own 25% of the forest land while the State and other public organizations own the remaining 24%

Sustainable Forestry in Sweden might well be benefitting from daily owner awareness of their responsibility to manage their land in both an eco and bio friendly manner.

Ken Hume