Sustainable and responsible forestry

20 per cent nature conservation areas

Of Holmen’s over 1 000 000 hectares of forest-clad land, we use about 80 per cent for wood production. The remaining 20 per cent is used for nature conservation purposes. Our nature conservation work can be divided into three different categories:

Areas voluntarily set-aside for nature conservation

Part of our forest land is exempt from harvesting and is only used for nature conservation purposes. These forests are known as set-aside areas. They are carefully chosen for their nature conservation potential and often have high conservation value. Holmen’s land set aside for nature conservation is spread across all our forest holdings. Larger cohesive areas are prioritised.

We leave the majority of the set-aside areas entirely untouched so they can develop freely, while others have to be managed to retain the natural assets that are the reason why the forest has been set aside. The measures we carry out are intended to promote specific processes and create biologically important structures on which some species are wholly dependent and which are favourable for many others. Without targeted nature conservation felling, broadleaf forest, for example, risks being outcompeted by spruce. Judicious felling and burning can also be used to increase the quantity of dead wood, which is often in short supply in the forests.

We assess the conservation benefits of various methods aimed at promoting biodiversity. For example, Holmen is taking part in a major research project run by Future Forests, in which various measures are being carried out in 30 set-aside areas. These measures are being monitored by researchers at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).

In Sweden all forest land that produces one cubic metre of growing stock, solid over bark, per hectare per year is counted as productive. In Holmen’s forests, areas set aside for nature conservation make up around 5 per cent of the productive forest land. On the website forestindustries.se, Holmen and several other major forest owners show their formal and voluntary set-aside areas in Sweden.

See the map of protected forest in Sweden

Non-productive forest land

Non-productive forest land is forest where the trees grow extremely slowly (less than one cubic metre of forest per hectare per year) due to a lack of nutrients or water. Non-productive forest land consists of bogs, marshes, mossy areas, rocky areas and exposed rock. There is often a high proportion of old, slow-growing and dead trees, which are important for a large number of species.

Around 2 per cent of forest-dwelling species have their main habitat in non-productive forest land. No forestry is undertaken there and coupled with the set-aside forest, non-productive forest land can create large, beautiful and richly varied areas.

Environmental considerations in managed forests

In addition to set-asides and non-productive forest land, there are additional nature conservation areas where forest thinning and harvesting leaves behind small biotopes, buffer zones and groups of trees.

Forest-dwelling species are dependent on different habitats and structures for their survival. For example, many species depend on mature broadleaved trees and large living, dying and dead trees. When managing our forests we therefore save all dead trees and favour nature conservation trees and conservation-promoting trees.

Nature conservation trees include large aspens, broadleaved trees north of the Dalälven river and trees that are unusually large or old or in some other way different from the norm. In cases where there are no nature conservation trees growing, conservation-promoting trees are instead left in order to improve the natural assets of the site over the long term. During general thinning and harvesting, we create stumps about three metres high from living trees in addition to the trees that died naturally.

Trees that have died less than a year ago and that may be a breeding ground for pests, such as the spruce bark beetle, are, however, removed from the forest to prevent these pests massively increasing in number and becoming a threat to living forest.

We also create valuable buffer zones around non-productive forest, coastlines, lakes, watercourses and agricultural land. These environments are often particularly rich in species, partly thanks to shifting sunlight levels, soil types and moisture levels. And partly because plants and animals from the forest are mixed with those from bogs, the water or the open landscape.

This, coupled with the set-aside areas and non-productive forest land, forms a band of habitats for different species across the whole forest landscape. In total, it creates a conservation area spanning around 20 per cent of Holmen’s forest land.