Sweden! - International Federation of Agricultural Journalists

36 SOLUTIONS FOR A GREEN FUTURE
The forest industry
Good for the environment
Forestry is one of the most important industries in Sweden.
It generates 3 percent of the Swedish gross national
product (GNP). The forest industry produces all sorts of
items, from paper, cardboard and tissue to sawn and planed
wood, furniture and pellets for heating. Forests lower
carbon levels. Growing forests hold carbon dioxide and
products made of wood continue to store carbon dioxide
as long as they are in use. Wood can often be used instead
of less environmentally-friendly materials. The forest industry
is Sweden´s largest producer and user of biofuels. 4
Large exports of wood products
The Swedish forest industry exported
products worth 129 billion SEK in 2010.
About 85 percentof the pulp and paper
produced in Sweden is exported. One
tenth of the paper demand in the EU is
covered by Swedish paper mills.
The production of paper in Great Britain,
Germany and France is dependent
on imports of pulp from Sweden. Swedish
sawmills export about 70 percent of their
wood products. Great Britain is the largest
importer of sawn and planed wood from
Sweden and the second largest importer is
Egypt. Other large importers are Germany,
France, the Netherlands, the Middle East
and Japan.
In the last few years, the export of Swedish
wood products to the Middle East has
increased greatly. In contrast, the USA now
imports far less as a result of the financial
crises.
Spruce and pine are the most common
trees
There are 22.5 million hectares of productive
forest in Sweden. This is more
than half of the total land area. The most
common tree is spruce (the “Christmas”
tree) and pine is the second most common.
They are both coniferous trees (with
needles).
Among the deciduous trees (with leaves),
birch is the most common. There are fo-