How activists are greening Sweden's logging industry | Focus on Europe 

In northern Sweden it takes somewhere around 120 years before tree is cut down. When you take Forest down you also have to replant and that is also done in Sweden. Sweden had a energy crisis in the mid / end of the 17 hundred in major parts of Sweden the forest were gone used as coal for the Steel industry. That triggered replanting in large scale that still continue. Sweden do not really have any natural forest all is planted including forest that are well over hundred years . Just because a forest is old that does not mean that it is natural, just that it was planted long ago. The first ten to thirty years s planted forest looks planted but after that it starts to look natural . After while the generation that planted the forest are no longer with us . People tend to forget that it was their Grand farther's Farther that planted the forest that you grown upp with. If you walk through a Swedish forest you will find traces of the old landscape. You will find old stone walls, old field boundary's, old coal mills traces from the time that all possible land were under the plow or used by grazing cattle. About one and a half miljons Swedes left for the Americas because no more land were available. Since then vast areas of forest has been planted.

As a Finn I haven't really payed attention to our Nordic neighbours. Cutting down forest's is always a sensitive subject - how the forest will regrow etc. In the case of Finland the EU actually wants to reverse how our forests grow and 'restore'. That would mean changing forests back to swamp. In Finland we never cut old forests without a reason. (Europeans in general need to understand that 'forests' are not necessarily a 'natural' thing in the Nordics - we have cultivated them for a 1000 years.)

Here in Germany Swabian Alb they've cut out all the old trees with the nice hard wood just to burn them in their fireplace, left thin young sticks that will break in high winds because the big old trees aren't there to shelter them. Also there are wide tracks in the forest like scars from big and heavy machinery. This is old forest management. A dense forest is cooler and retains more moisture which is vital in a warming climate.

Felling trees on the land that they own. Land that will be replanted with the same trees, will be left for 30-40 years and then the process repeats. I think Greenpeace should put more focus on indiscriminate and illegal amazon destruction instead of this tree farm?

Meanwhile Ikea illegally chops down some of Europe's last old forests in Romania

I'm not sure we're the greenpeace people get their information but they clearly know nothing of forestry. Cut down after 30-40 years? Must be the most productive soil in the world last time I checked the time span up there was more like 100-120 years

Look at most of Europe, you don't even have your forests left!!! That said the huge clear cuttings are bad and making most forest into economy forests ain't positive either, still all this is better than not having their forests at all. Yes it is a lot harder to forage today, yes it changes the nature, yes we don't have ancient forests left soon but still the companies here has to make profit somehow. The only solution is that every country brings back 70% of their forests and then we all can use less effective/profitable ways to harvest the forests. The demand is so high that we that have our forests left have to/benefits to do things like clear cutting and maximizing growth of harvest able trees. Before you say anything, I have driven from Finland to Italy to Slovenia and back up to Finland and it made me sad to see how your countries have cleared em all. Like I got happy again when we entered Slovenia, the border between Italy and Slovenia is fields of grapes -> trees. So instead of only trying to stop others from doing "not the best thing" for their forest, maybe fix your own forests. Then include the toxic chemicals that have been added to your areas where a forest grew back in the day... So is clear cuts really the biggest issue as long as they replant the trees. It is an issue but not close to the biggest one.

you can thank IKEA for this

Looking closely, one can see the word "Sámi" in the name of the cooperative - but no other (verbal) mention by anyone in this report.

The reindeer levels are kept at completely unnatural levels. They eat all of lichen etc and cause more car damages than their meat is worth. Odd seeing greenpeace working together with a partner like that.

The most eco-friendly part of the world by far and with any metric, gets absolutely bonkers if anything "bad" happens to the forests. This is going to be labeled as whataboutism but i don't care: how about you care about the clearcut forest in central europe that were cut to the last tree 300-500 years ago? Whining about a fraction of a percent when it makes no difference in the european scale and at the same time nothing gets done in europe to renew the forests because it's more lucrative to use the land for farming and import the wood from the nordics.

As a swed I tank DW News for some good news reporting! Swedish news are mostly behind paywalls nowadays so me and many people dont get the news from "old media". Also Greenpeace reducing clear cutting is a very good thing, our wood industry is often seen as a good thing and it can be if taken care of and done sustainable but clear cutting is not something that is sustainable. Hopefully this improves our forest industry.

Whats the alternative? More concrete? We need to start planting and harvesting more trees.

It`s about time that this aggression against the northern nature is highlighted. It`s double-moral that Finland and Sweden are conserned about deforestation of rainforests and at the same time using this destructive methods in own forests. Even they (we) are planting new trees (so called tree-fields, not forest) the fauna is lost or severly damaged.

Bald the environment near the Arctic circle sounds like destruction to entire eco-system, reindeer, native herders, ice and snow. Warm it up and see what happens. So sad.

Although I think the preservation of invaluable old growth forests is a tremendously important, for forests that are zoned for timber harvesting, forestry science shows that clear cutting is not so different from natural processes that occur. Over the course of extended periods of time, forests experience naturally occurring fires, erosion and landslides take out massive areas and high winds blow down large groups of trees. Still timber harvesting companies should be required to replace clear cut areas with saplings and show that the work they are doing is performed in the most sustainable manner with minimal environmental impact.

When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money.

I have to give now my opinion as a Finn. All the Nordics countries have more forests now than in the past 200 years. In Finland the 'the cuts' are basically taking care of the forest - the forests rewens. It might be difficult for central Europeans to understand but without cuttings the forrest gets almost like a swamp with dead trees which certainly will not take CO2 from atmosphere.

Any effort to make the logging industry more sustainable is welcome, though I find it upsetting how these reindeer herders claim its their right to have a massive land area for their reindeer while most people born in cities in Sweden don't even inherit a house they can live in.

I live in Nova Scotia Canada, and my province is being clear cut to provide bio mass for heating in Europe! We need help from Green Peace too!

We should start replanting the central european forrests that have been decimated by agriculture.

YOU THINK THIS IS EASIER THAN CONTROLLING YOUR BORDERS ??!! ARE YOU INSANE ??????

clear cutting just needs some rules on leaving some of the old growth untouched in effective ways to serve as seeds for regeneration. leaving one or two trees up here and there doesn't help, they dry up or fall down in windstorms. small scale clear cuts are important unless we start allowing wildfires to clear forests periodically, there are lots of species that need the clear cuttings. Just not on this scale obviously.

Too much focus on the northern parts of nordics. It is in the southern, middle part of Sweden and Finland where is the greatest lost of biodiversity, old forests and drained bogs.😌

30 yrs ago drove through Oregon and Washington state and was nauseated by the clear cutting, the creeks running brown with mud.Still upset by the thought and feeling like I couldn't do anything to stop it. US companies do not care what people think, want or what is good for the planet. I am glad somewhere on this planet there is a responsible CEO

Many plants are to be planted!!

Do something to stop this disaster please. Also in Poland massiv cutting 2ha or 4ha i saw last year. Please activists try to stop it us urgent

Damn hippies should do something productive instead of protesting…

IKEA IS IN HIGH DEMAND

Well IKEA needs all those lumber

They should at least make the effort to replant the area that they cut down.

What about Brazil and clear-cutting😂 for agriculture use.

Logs get you sticks, sticks get you twigs . I call them twigs, you call them full grown trees . Equals i call it greed . ☠

As a German I really love that my country belongs to the world and not to its own people. In my head I tell myself that this is good, natural and normal.

It has been tried to avoid clear cutting in the 50th with disastrous result.

4:08 "Environmentalists and lumber companies have long been at odds" - quite natural with one side's entire income/business relying on as much destruction of the nature as possible/allowed to. I think most people are "at odds with the lumber companies", it's just that most of us are just too lazy/busy to do anything about it - these businesses rely on our innaction.