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Abstract

This article describes the transformation of old-growth forest to managed forests, in North (N) Sweden and boreal regions of North-West (BNW) Russia, from economic, social and ecological perspectives. Whereas in BNW Russia, the logging frontier could be kept moving into unharvested regions, N Sweden earlier had to develop solutions where large-scale logging had already taken place. In 1950–1990, Swedish strategies included rationing of old forest, effective regeneration and also precommercial and commercial thinning. Supporting means were legislation, government-funded subsidies and collaboration among enterprises, researchers and political leaders. BNW Russia is currently facing similar challenges and N Swedish experiences should be analysed and used where applicable. In N Sweden, a too low proportion of representative productive old forests remains, but in the last decades, N Swedish forests exempted from economic use have been significantly increased. Ongoing discussions of also defining areas with more intensive forest management would lead to a zoning, bearing some resemblance to the Russian system, in use since 1943. Russian experience should, therefore, be of interest to Swedish forest policy-makers. Both countries have problems with rural social issues. Both can benefit from collaboration on these aspects of sustainable forest management.

Keywords

Sustainable forest management; forest policy; forest age distribution; rural development; biodiversity conservation; forest management; history; logging frontier

Published in

Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research
2013, volume: 28, number: 8, pages: 797-810

SLU Authors

Global goals (SDG)

SDG8 Decent work and economic growth
SDG12 Responsible consumption and production
SDG15 Life on land

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science

Publication identifier

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02827581.2013.838993

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/51513