170 scientists demand protection of old-growth forests

In an appeal, initiated by the Swedish organization Protect the Forest,
more than 170 scientists demand that the Swedish Government act and
protect old-growth forests and other forests with high conservation values
in Sweden, before it is too late. The appeal is supported by 19
organizations and thousands of individuals, including members of the
Swedish Parliament and cultural celebrities. At a press conference in
Stockholm today, the appeal will be delivered to the Government and the
opposition parties.

The action proposals in the appeal are stated during 2010, UN's
International Year of Biodiversity. This is the year when the Swedish
environmental objective, Sustainable Forests, should be achieved and a new
interim target for long-term protection of forest land should be adopted.
Sweden is, however, far from achieving the objective of preserving
biodiversity and a living forest landscape.

"Being one of the world's richest countries, Sweden can afford to preserve
the last remaining natural forests," said Sven G. Nilsson, Professor of
Ecology at Lund University. "Also, extensive work is needed to restore
conservation values in many forests, in order to be able to set aside 20
percent of the Swedish productive forest land for nature conservation."

The Government is expected to present its environmental objective bill in
the coming weeks, where the ambition regarding future forest protection
will be described. There are strong concerns that it will not be sufficient.

"We are now at a crossroads. Despite 20 years of forest policies in which
the environmental and production objective should be of equal importance,
forests with high conservation values are still being logged, forests that
are required to achieve the environmental objective," said Bengt Gunnar
Jonsson, Professor of Plant Ecology at Mid Sweden University. "It is
simply not possible to achieve the national environmental objective, which
states that all native plant and animal species should be safeguarded in
viable populations, with only a few percent of the original forests
remaining."

Sven G. Nilsson, Professor of Ecology, Lund University