There is continued strong growth in the Swedish forests and the total standing volume continues to increase, according to the latest official statistics from the National Forest Inventroy at SLU.
- After a period of higher fellings, linked to the storms Gudrun and Per, the difference between growth and fellings has once again increased and it is this that is driving the increase in standing volume, explains Jonas Fridman, Programme manager for the Swedish National Forest Inventory. The total standing volume in Sweden now stands at 3.5 billion cubic meters, which means that trees represent a store of 2.6 billion tons of coal, continues Jonas.
Looking into the future
In addition to presenting the official statistics in the form of tables, charts and comments this year's Skogsdata also contains a themed chapter that combines the Swedish National Forest Inventory time series from the last 60 years with results from the forest resource management project SKA 15. For the first time we can illustrate forest conditions and changes from the 1950s right through to the year 2110, ie for 160 years. The simulations, performed with Heureka system and based on the assumption that forestry continues to be managed as it is today, illustrate how the historical increases in growth, fellings and timber volume are expected to continue throughout the simulation period. Total standing volume is expected to increase from today's 3.5 billion cubic meters to almost 5 billion by 2110, driven by increasing growth, which is expected to rise from 120 million cubic meters per year to over 160 million years by the year 2110.
- Being able to connect long time series data from the National Forest Inventory with Heureka gives us fantastic opportunities to study forest development, says Per-Erik Wikberg who is the author of this years themed chapter.
Standing volume by tree species. Whole country. Data from the Swedish NFI (solid line) and SKA 15 (broken line)
The publication Skogsdata is available free of charge as a downloadable pdf via the Swedish National Forest Inventorys website. There you can also find our statistics archive and TaxWebb our interactive analysis tool.
The Swedish National Forest Inventory has the task of describing the state and changes in Sweden's forests. The information collected is used, for example, as a basis for forestry, energy and environmental policy in Sweden.
Data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory is part of Sweden's official statistics.
www.slu.se/nfi
The Swedish NFI is part of the Forest programme within SLU:s environmental monitoring and assessment.
Jonas Fridman, Head of Programme
The Swedish National Forest Inventory, SLU
jonas.fridman@slu.se,
+46 (0)90-786 8473, +46 (0)70-6784052
Per Nilsson, Head of Analysis
The Swedish National Forest Inventory, SLU
per.nilsson@slu.se, +46 (0)90 786 8472