Forests and the forest industry: felling, the carbon sink and the rules
Short answer: Forest covers two thirds of Sweden's land. It grows by about 128 million cubic metres a year and roughly two thirds of that is felled, so the growing stock is twice as large as in the 1920s. Half of the productive forest land is owned by private individuals, a quarter by forest companies and almost a fifth by the state, mostly through Sveaskog. The forest industry exported about 185 billion kronor worth of goods in 2024. The forest absorbed 55 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2024, more than Sweden's other emissions but less than in the 1990s, and it matters to more red-listed species than any other landscape type. How the forest should be used and protected is disputed, both in the Riksdag and between Sweden and the EU.
More on the site: Defence on emergency stocks of medicines and fuel, EU on what Sweden pays to and receives from the Union Prices on food prices since 2019, Farmers' conditions on income, the price paid to farmers and costs and The sea and fishing on catches and the fishing fleet.
The forest grows more than is cut down.
The Swedish National Forest Inventory measures trees on thousands of sample plots across the country every year and calculates how much the forest grows and how much disappears, either through felling or because trees die from age, storms, drought and insects. Values are five-year averages, in million forest cubic metres (the stem above the stump including top and bark). The year is the middle year of the five-year period.
Natural losses increased
Natural losses, trees that die from age, storms, drought and insects, increased after the storms Gudrun in 2005 and Per in 2007 and after the spruce bark beetle outbreak following the drought of 2018. Timber that dies without being felled does not count as felling but reduces the forest's net growth.
SLU, National Forest Inventory; Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, net removals from land use
SLU, National Forest Inventory, figure 1.12: total annual growth, felling of living trees and natural losses, all land, five-year averages.
There is twice as much timber in the forest as a hundred years ago.
The growing stock is the total volume of all living trees. It has grown since the first national forest inventory in the 1920s, when the forest was heavily cut and grazed. Since 2005 forest in formally protected areas, such as national parks and nature reserves, is included too.
SLU, National Forest Inventory, figure 1.7: total growing stock of living trees, million forest cubic metres, five-year averages.
Most timber comes from final fellings.
In rotation forestry, dominant in Sweden since the 1950s, the forest is thinned a few times while it grows and then felled all at once when the trees are fully grown. The land is then planted or sown again. Thinning removes some of the trees so that the remaining ones grow better. In continuous cover forestry trees are taken out a few at a time, and the forest is never completely bare.
Continuous cover on a few percent of the land
According to the Swedish Forest Agency, 735,000 hectares were managed with continuous cover in 2025, less than five percent of the forest land. Private individuals accounted for 475,000 hectares and other owners for 260,000. The statistics are based on a sample, so the change between single years is uncertain.
Swedish Forest Agency, measures in forestry (August 2026); the definition in report 2021/8
Notified fellings
In 2025 regeneration felling was notified on 242,000 hectares, on average 4.1 hectares per notification. Private individuals notified 135,000 hectares and other owners 107,000. A notification shows what is planned, not what is actually cut.
Swedish Forest Agency, felling notifications (September 2026)
SLU, National Forest Inventory, table 4.3: average annual felling by felling type on productive forest land, five-year averages, million forest cubic metres and thousand hectares.
Half of the forest is owned by private individuals.
The Swedish Forest Agency calculates ownership from the property tax assessment. In 2025, 307,665 people owned forest, fewer than the 354,288 who owned forest in 1999. Companies and the state own most in Norrland, private individuals most in southern Sweden and on Gotland. The breakdown by county is in the table further down.
| Owner class | Share, percent | Area, million hectares |
|---|---|---|
| Private individuals | 49 | 11.3 |
| Privately owned limited companies | 25 | 5.8 |
| State-owned limited companies, in practice Sveaskog | 13 | 3.0 |
| The state | 5 | 1.3 |
| Other private, including the Church of Sweden and commons | 6 | 1.5 |
| Other public, including the municipalities | 2 | 0.4 |
Sveaskog
The state-owned Sveaskog owns 14 percent of Sweden's forest land, 3.9 million hectares, and has about 850 employees. In 2025 the company had a turnover of 8.7 billion kronor and paid a dividend of 1.3 billion to the state. Sveaskog also sells land as compensation to landowners whose forest is protected. More about the state-owned companies is on State-owned companies.
Sveaskog, interim report January to June 2026
Swedish Forest Agency, property and ownership structure in forestry (table PX01), productive forest land 2025.
Sawmills, pulp and paper for export.
According to the trade association Swedish Forest Industries, the forest industry exported about 185 billion kronor worth of goods in 2024, 6 percent of Sweden's total exports and 9 percent of goods exports. The same year 17.8 million cubic metres of sawn wood, about 11 million tonnes of pulp and 8 million tonnes of paper and board were produced. The association estimates that about 140,000 people work in the forest sector, counting the jobs at suppliers and subcontractors.
| Industry | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 2022 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forestry | 28,200 | 26,600 | 27,800 | 30,200 | 31,900 |
| Wood products industry, including sawmills | 34,900 | 29,700 | 32,100 | 34,100 | 25,000 |
| Pulp and paper industry | 30,700 | 25,800 | 22,800 | 20,300 | 23,400 |
A sample, not a count
The Labour Force Survey is based on interviews with a sample, so the jumps between single years are uncertain. According to the Swedish Forest Agency, employment in forestry has been between 25,000 and 32,000 since 2007.
Swedish Forest Agency, employment in forestry
Most jobs in Västra Götaland
Counting indirect jobs, Västra Götaland has the most people employed in the forest sector, about 14,900, followed by Jönköping, Värmland, Gävleborg and Västernorrland.
Swedish Forest Industries, Koll på svensk skogsindustri 2025
Swedish Forest Industries, Koll på svensk skogsindustri 2025 and statistics 2025; Swedish Forest Agency, number employed according to the Labour Force Survey, 15 to 74 years, by industry (SNI 02, 16 and 17).
The forest absorbs carbon dioxide, but less than in the 1990s.
When the forest grows more than is felled and dies, carbon is stored in the trees and the soil. The removal is reported in the climate accounts under land use (LULUCF) and is shown here as positive numbers, in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. Sweden's emissions excluding LULUCF are shown for comparison. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency changed method in December 2025 and recalculated the whole series; figures from older reports therefore cannot be compared with these.
Why the sink shrank
According to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, net removals fell sharply from 2010 to 2021, because growth decreased while both felling and natural losses, including from the spruce bark beetle, were high. Felling in 2021 and 2022 was the highest since the storms Gudrun and Per.
Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, net emissions and net removals from land use
The recovery in 2023 and 2024
In 2024 net removals were 54 million tonnes, 8 million more than the year before. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency attributes this to slightly higher growth, felling at its lowest in ten years and better methods, and points out that the uncertainty is large.
Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, press release 16 December 2025
The EU target for 2030
The EU LULUCF regulation, amended in 2023, requires Sweden to increase net removals by about 4 million tonnes by 2030 compared with 2016 to 2018. In spring 2026 the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency made a preliminary assessment that Sweden meets the commitment for 2021 to 2025, but that it is uncertain for 2026 to 2030. The final accounting is done in 2032.
Regulation (EU) 2018/841 and 2023/839; Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, input to the climate report 2026
Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Statistics Sweden, greenhouse gas emissions and removals (MI0107), million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. Forest land and harvested wood products are parts of LULUCF.
The forest is home to the most red-listed species.
The SLU Swedish Species Information Centre assessed 23,103 species in the Red List 2025. Of these, 5,217 are red-listed and 2,373 are classed as threatened. For 2,235 of the red-listed species the forest is of great importance, more than for any other landscape type. The agricultural landscape comes next with 1,704 species. The most common threats to forest species are the lack of forest that has stood undisturbed for a long time (continuity forest), the lack of large and old trees and the lack of dead wood.
| Threats | Species with a large negative effect |
|---|---|
| Lack of continuity forest | 901 |
| Lack of large or old trees | 687 |
| Soil disturbance from forestry | 600 |
| Lack of dead wood | 575 |
| Changed stand structure | 320 |
| Denser forest canopy | 304 |
| More open forest, including clear-cutting | 111 |
The National Forest Inventory counts forest as old when it is at least 140 years old in the boreal region in the north and at least 120 years in the boreonemoral and nemoral region in the south. Shown here is old forest outside formally protected areas. The area has increased since the 1980s in both regions.
The red lists cannot be compared directly
The Red List 2020 had 4,740 red-listed species. The increase to 2025 is partly because more species were assessed and the list of threats was revised, so it is not a clean trend.
SLU Swedish Species Information Centre, Red-listed species in Sweden 2025 and open data 2020 and 2025
SLU Swedish Species Information Centre, Red-listed species in Sweden 2025, open data (CC0), own calculation. SLU, National Forest Inventory: area of old forest outside formally protected areas, thousand hectares, five-year averages.
Forest protection based on voluntary agreement.
A woodland key habitat is, according to the Swedish Forest Agency, a forest with high nature values, often with threatened species. The agency's database holds about 115,000 known key habitats and sites with nature values. The registration has no legal effect of its own, but both FSC and PEFC forbid certified forest owners to fell in key habitats, so it affects the landowner's ability to use the forest.
Registration ended in 2021
In the bill on stronger property rights the government proposed that the Swedish Forest Agency stop surveying and registering key habitats, and that voluntary formal protection be the starting point. The agency stopped on 21 December 2021. Existing records remain.
Govt. bill 2021/22:58; Swedish Forest Agency, woodland key habitats
The ruling in 2024
In January 2024 the Supreme Administrative Court found that a registration cannot be appealed. The Swedish Forest Agency thereafter no longer deregisters areas registered after 26 June 2019.
HFD 2024 ref. 1; Swedish Forest Agency
Compensation to landowners
Anyone whose forest is protected as a nature reserve, habitat protection area or through a nature conservation agreement receives compensation from the state, in money or in replacement land from Sveaskog among others. The budget appropriation for measures for valuable nature is used for this; for 2026 the government proposed 1.8 billion kronor.
Govt. bill 2021/22:58; budget bill for 2026, expenditure area 20
Swedish Forest Agency, woodland key habitats (updated November 2025); the government, govt. bill 2021/22:58.
Three EU regulations that affect the Swedish forest.
Under the EU treaties forest policy is mainly national, but the EU shapes the forest through climate, environment and trade rules.
LULUCF, the carbon sink
The land use regulation gives each country a target for net removals. Sweden's target for 2030 is a removal of just over 50 million tonnes, about 4 million more than in 2016 to 2018.
Regulation (EU) 2018/841, amended by (EU) 2023/839; govt. bill 2025/26:1 annex 4
The Nature Restoration Regulation
The Nature Restoration Regulation entered into force on 18 August 2024. For forests it requires, among other things, that the amount of dead wood, the share of uneven-aged forest and an index of forest birds increase. On 3 September 2026 the government adopted a draft national plan with 39 packages of measures. The agencies' input in February 2026 contained 201 proposed measures.
Regulation (EU) 2024/1991; the government, draft national restoration plan 4 September 2026; Swedish Environmental Protection Agency February 2026
The Deforestation Regulation
The regulation requires anyone selling wood and certain other goods in the EU to show that the product does not come from land deforested after 2020, with the geographic position of the felling. Its application has been postponed twice and, according to the decision in December 2025, applies to large companies from 30 December 2026.
Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 and the amendments of 2024 and 2025
EU regulations in EUR-Lex; the government; Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. How much Sweden pays to and receives from the EU is on EU.
The forest, the owners and the timber in each county.
Forest land and owners are five-year averages around 2023, growth around 2020. Private limited companies are the forest companies. Other owners include the state and the state-owned Sveaskog, the Church of Sweden, the municipalities and the commons. Growing stock and dead wood are counted on all land, including protected land.
| County | Forest land, thousand hectares | Share of land area, percent | Private individuals, percent | Private limited companies, percent | Other owners, percent | Growing stock, million m³sk | Growth per year, million m³sk | Dead wood, million m³ |
|---|
SLU, National Forest Inventory: table 2.3 forest land by owner group, area by land use class, growing stock by tree species, growth and dead wood, by county. The forest land in your municipality is shown on the map in the layer Energy and forestry.
What the parties want for the forest.
During the parliamentary session 2025/26 the government presented three bills on the forest. The largest, govt. bill 2025/26:242, removes the link between felling notification and consultation under the Environmental Code and limits the landowner's cost of investigating nature values. The table gives the parties' own wording from their Riksdag motions. For M, KD and L the motions are written by individual members and show a direction within the party, not necessarily the party's official line.
| Party | Route | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The government (M, KD, L) | Clearer rules for active forestry, compensation when species protection restricts land use, and a nature conservation account in the tax rules for those who receive compensation for conservation agreements. | Govt. bills 2025/26:242, 2025/26:230 and 2025/26:69 |
| Sweden Democrats | Welcomes govt. bill 242, citing the principle of freedom under responsibility. Members want to replace felling notification with self-monitoring. | Motions 2025/26:4143 and 2025/26:524 |
| Social Democrats | Wants a full impact assessment of govt. bill 242, opposes shortening the felling notification period from six to three weeks and wants a balance between the two equal goals of forest policy, production and environment. | Motion 2025/26:4144 |
| Centre Party | Govt. bill 242 is in line with the party's policy. Also wants measures for higher forest growth. | Motion 2025/26:4145 |
| Left Party | Reject govt. bill 242, except the right to appeal to the Land and Environment Court. | Motion 2025/26:4141 |
| Green Party | Reject govt. bill 242, which according to the party leads to more intensive forestry. Wants more protection, less felling and a bonus–malus system in forestry. | Motions 2025/26:4147 and 2025/26:3777 |
| Moderates, members | Stronger rights of ownership and use, and a plan to sell parts of Sveaskog's forest to smaller and new forest owners. | Motions 2025/26:3259 and 2025/26:2213 |
| Christian Democrats, member | Confidentiality for felling notifications. | Motion 2025/26:3129 |
| Liberals, members | Investigate whether the profit from felling in state forests should be shared with the municipalities where the trees grew. | Motion 2025/26:3614 |
Riksdag open data, government bills and motions in the session 2025/26.
Where the figures come from.
- Growth, felling, growing stock, old forest, owners and the counties: SLU, National Forest Inventory, official statistics in the SLU forest statistics database. Five-year averages, with the middle year as the year.
- The carbon sink and emissions: Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Statistics Sweden, greenhouse gas emissions and removals (MI0107), CC BY 4.0.
- The Red List: SLU Swedish Species Information Centre, Red-listed species in Sweden 2025, open data (CC0), own calculation.
- Continuous cover, felling notifications and key habitats: Swedish Forest Agency.
- Exports, production and employment in the forest sector: Swedish Forest Industries, Koll på svensk skogsindustri 2025. Employment according to the Labour Force Survey and ownership structure: Swedish Forest Agency.
- Sveaskog: the company's interim report January to June 2026.
- The EU rules: EUR-Lex, the government and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The parties: Riksdag open data and the parties' programmes.
The series were retrieved in October 2026.