Area of approved regeneration unchanged in 2024

Nyhet | Statistik - 25 November 2024

Statistics from the Swedish Forest Agency show that 81 percent of the annual harvested forest area has been regenerated to the levels stipulated by the regulations as of 2021 in the Forestry Act. In 2022, the Swedish Forest Agency revised the regulations regarding the obligation to establish new forests. In next year's results, when sufficient data is available, regrowth will also be evaluated against the new regulations. This year’s result is in parity with the previous year, which was the lowest approval figure for ten years.

As the Forestry Act stipulates that forest owners regenerate forests, the Swedish Forest Agency annually conducts a survey to monitor regeneration. The harvested area which meets the levels stipulated in the regulations as of 2021, regarding number of approved plants and maximum gap area, has shown a positive development since the millennium and has remained at a stable level. However, over the last few years, this level has decreased, this year’s survey shows a similar result to last year with 81 percent.

The highest percent of approved regenerations was seen in North Norrland with 91 percent, followed by Götaland and South Norrland with 81 percent and 78 percent respectively. The lowest percent of approved regenerations was found in Svealand with 76 percent.

No difference between owner categories

The ownership class Other owners has, for the past 20 years, shown better results than Individual owners. The difference between the classes has however been decreasing steadily. This year’s result show Other owners at 83 percent and Individual owners at 79 percent approved regenerations respectively.

Highest level of approved regenerations when planting and sowing

Regarding the choice of regeneration method, planting seedlings has consistently been the most reliable method for regeneration. The statistics show that 83 percent of the planted area is approved, which is a decrease of three percentage points from last year. Harvested areas that are sown now show approval ratings at 78 percent, but they account for only three percent of the total harvested area. Natural regeneration results in 65 percent of the area reaching approved regeneration in the most recent results. 47 percent of the areas where no regeneration measures have been taken attained approved regeneration.

Continued decline in area regenerated naturally

Planting is the dominating method for regeneration. At the turn of the century approximately 60 percent of the harvested area was planted, this figure is now at 87 percent. The area regenerated naturally is declining and is now at 7 percent of the harvested area.

More common with scarification before planting

Soil scarification is performed on 91 percent of the harvested area that is planted. In comparison, where natural regeneration is used, scarification is undertaken on 50 percent of the area. In total, 87 percent of harvested areas are scarified. In North and South Norrland, levels of soil scarification are high, at 96 percent and 93 percent respectively. In Svealand this figure is 85 percent and in Götaland 73 percent.

Scots pine more common than Norway spruce

The number of main plants per hectare has been relatively stable over the last few years. The latest results show however a decline to 2 315 main plants per hectare. The most common species are Scots pine and Norway spruce. Scots pine account for approximately 46 percent of main plants, followed by Norway spruce with 34 percent.

Explanations

We report the results in accordance with the regulations in Section 6 of the Forestry Act (1979:429) which applied up until 2021. For the regeneration to be classified as approved, the number of main plants in the inventoried regeneration must amount to at least the prescribed number per hectare and the gap must be below what is prescribed. The inventory instruction is similar, but not identical, to the instructions for supervision under the Forestry Act.

From the 1 April 2022 new regulations come into force pertaining to the minimum number of main plants/main stems that must be present for a regeneration to be seen as approved. Until we have sufficient data to be able to present a three-year average according to the new regulations, the results presented will be in accordance with the older regulations.

Individual owners = Single owners, estates and small companies (sole traders).
Other owners = State, state owned companies/corporations, other public owners, private-sector companies/corporations and other private owners except individual owners.

The statistics are included in the Official Statistics of Sweden.