Boreal forest is the Earth’s largest terrestrial carbon storehouse, but in Sweden industrial forestry has converted most of the productive forests to young, even aged monocultures by using clearcutting and plantation. These ”teenage forests” hold much less carbon than natural forests. To secure well-functioning forests under a changing climate, and reverse patterns of ecological degradation of boreal forests rewilding of the boreal forest ecosystems and development of closer-to-nature forestry methods are urgently needed.

Rewilding Sweden will:

• carefully rewet drained forest by filling ditches
• restore mires/peatlands and streams in the forest
• create patches in dense forests for increased sunlight reaching the forest floor, improving the conditions for ground lichen as well as germination of seeds from nearby forests, creating mixed more resilient forests and better grazing for the reindeer
• make long-term agreement with landowners to use continuous cover forestry methods
• remove non-native species
• create more dead, coarse wood