Are Sweden's ancient forests being turned into paper?

DW (English)

Wood is a precious raw material. In Sweden, the packaging industry is destroying more and more old forests to make toilet paper or cardboard. Biologists warn these ancient woodlands can no longer help protect ecosystems and the climate.

Transcript

00:00Hundreds of millions of packages travel the globe each day,

00:05products and food delivered right to your door.

00:09But the raw materials for boxes like these are disappearing.

00:16Like here in Sweden.

00:18For these unspoiled pine forests, found mostly in the north,

00:22the clock is ticking.

00:25Clear-cutting in many regions is leaving behind vast barren landscapes.

00:30Sometimes these areas are replanted with crop trees.

00:35But the old growth forest is long gone.

00:39It's been a forest here since after the Ice Age for thousands of years.

00:43So this ecosystem we're standing in is ancient.

00:47And if we clear-cut it, we break this ecological eternity, kind of.

00:57Daniel Lutschmann from the Protect the Forest Action Group

01:01is drilling deep into this tree to determine its age.

01:08This area is set to be cleared soon for the Swedish paper industry.

01:14I mean, this tree is 400 years old.

01:17And this may well be what it will be turned into.

01:20We'll never know for sure,

01:22because tracking what the Swedish wood and cellulose industry does

01:25with an individual trunk isn't possible.

01:30Biologists warn against clear-cutting old growth forests.

01:34They say the ecological value of these stands is much greater

01:38than that of commercial timberlands undergoing regular clearing.

01:43And that it takes an old growth forest 100 years to recover again.

01:48This map shows the clearings from the past 50 years

01:52in Lutschmann's home province of Västernorrland.

01:56Nature conservation organizations say at least 2%

02:00of valuable continuity forests are lost each year.

02:06Lutschmann's work is rarely done.

02:09He continues his tracking of logging companies' activities

02:12in the evening at home.

02:15So I'm looking at recent notifications for final felling.

02:22We see that SCR now has, of their notification for final felling,

02:26about 37% is within these continuity forests.

02:31And since there's not very much left of these forests,

02:33this means every year we're losing crucial areas

02:38for preserving our biodiversity.

02:40The Swedish company SCA faces frequent criticism.

02:44It owns 10% of all forests in Sweden.

02:47In promotional clips, SCA presents itself as a responsible industrial company,

02:53one that protects rather than exploits the forest

02:56and ships sustainable paper products throughout the world.

03:01The company declined requests for an interview

03:04and issued a written statement instead.

03:08The portion of continuity forests that may still be subject to forestry

03:12undergoes a nature value assessment,

03:15and management methods are adjusted based on the values present at the site.

03:19In cases where high nature values are identified,

03:22the land is set aside.

03:26The company makes note of an international certification system

03:30for more sustainable forestry,

03:32which is also observed in logging, so-called FSC certificates.

03:37The FSC logo can be found on many products all over the world,

03:41such as milk cartons.

03:44But Rytman says the verification system has failed to save forests,

03:49at least in Sweden.

03:51He regularly observes SCA logging valuable continuity forests,

03:55informing officials managing the certification process of the violations.

04:03So they warn SCA, and then they say,

04:07OK, we won't do it again. But then they do it again, of course.

04:11And we see this, this is just happening over and over again.

04:14It doesn't matter how many times we catch them logging trees

04:18that are not allowed, according to the FSC.

04:23Forest exploitation has other victims too,

04:26like Sweden's unique reindeer and the indigenous Sami reindeer herders.

04:33Per Mikkel Oren is one of them.

04:36His herd has been grazing on their own for the past half hour.

04:40In the winter, the reindeer feed on lichens hanging from trees.

04:46Before logging on Sami lands,

04:48companies must obtain consent from reindeer herders.

04:52That's the FSC rule.

04:55But it isn't always followed.

04:58These few thousand hectares were cleared without our consent.

05:05When a forest is logged, the lichens on the ground are mostly destroyed.

05:14And the next step is to plant a commercial forest,

05:18or more precisely, plantations.

05:21Those then suffocate the remaining nourishment for the reindeer.

05:26The clear-cutting of Swedish continuity forests

05:29threatens the survival of some 1,400 animal and plant species.

05:34Biologists are sounding the alarm.

05:39If you look at the forest,

05:42you can see that there is a lot of vegetation,

05:46and that means that locally,

05:49species are getting extinct.

05:52And if you add that to a larger forest,

05:55it means that the forest is dying.

05:58And that's the problem.

06:00If you look at the forest,

06:02you can see that there is a lot of vegetation,

06:05and that means that the forest is dying.

06:08And if you add that to a larger forest,

06:11it means that the forest is dying.

06:14And if you add that to a larger scale,

06:17you have a larger number of individuals of these species lost.

06:26Swedish authorities reject accusations

06:29they're not sufficiently protecting the forest.

06:32They argue it's difficult to distinguish

06:35between valuable old growth and less valuable commercial forests.

06:40Take, for example, in an extreme case,

06:44a forest no person has ever set foot in,

06:48but where one tree was felled 100 years ago.

06:52And on the other hand,

06:55an area that has been clear-cut except for one old tree.

07:00There are all sorts of variations between these two examples.

07:05How can we clearly determine

07:08when a forest has such a high ecological value

07:12that we shouldn't manage it?

07:15Conservationists regularly hang warning signs on very old trees,

07:20hoping workers will then work around them.

07:24Others block the path for forest-clearing machines.

07:30They say old growth forests play a major role

07:34in protecting the climate, too.

07:37So from a climate perspective,

07:40the forests are both carbon sinks

07:43that sequester carbon from the atmosphere.

07:46And they're huge storages of carbon,

07:49which is stored in the trees we see

07:52and it's in the soil and the mycelium below us.

07:56So if we log this, we lose the carbon stock.

08:01Most Swedes are proud of their extensive woodlands,

08:05but as conservationist Daniel Rutschmann explains,

08:09if current practices continue,

08:12the country will soon see its forests

08:15entirely replaced by plantations.

08:18One of SCA's biggest clients

08:20is Swiss food and beverage conglomerate Nestle,

08:23which declined requests for an interview.

08:30In a written statement responding to our concerns

08:33that old growth trees might end up in their packaging,

08:37the company said it's working on alternatives made from recyclables.

08:45We also actively work with our direct suppliers

08:48to incorporate responsible forest sourcing strategies

08:51and practices in northern Sweden.

08:55But Daniel Rutschmann is skeptical.

08:58He hopes consumers will take action,

09:01reassess their consumption habits,

09:03exert more pressure,

09:05and thereby protect what is left

09:08of Sweden's old growth forests.

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