'It's a carbon bomb': Exploring Sweden's foresting industry

Europe is blessed with magnificent forests. They are vital to us: they clean our air and even help combat climate change. But they are also highly in demand.

We cut down trees to make our homes, our furniture, our paper. We have destroyed, replanted, and exploited forests. In Europe, the number of forests is increasing, but their health is declining. 

In Sweden, forests cover two-thirds of Sweden and many people rely on them for their livelihood. It’s the most forested country in the European Union.

Although known for its pro-environment ethos, Sweden’s ancient forests have disappeared, and been replaced by monoculture tree crops.

Per Jiborn, a board member of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation knows a thing or two about the subject. He agreed to show me the results of a technique often used in Sweden looks like. It's called clearcutting.

Clearcutting is a logging technique where trees are cut down uniformly one by one in quick succession. It is favoured by some foresters as it is the quickest way to make a profit off cut-down trees.

However, as Jiborn shows, the impact it can leave on a block of land is devastating.

“10 years ago, all this was a forest. Now you have sun all day. All this will dry out. The insects have a totally different world in this area,” Jibborn says.

On top of insects having no soil to feed off, the once-forested land can’t retain carbon. More forests mean more carbon absorption – which in turn means less carbon hurting our environment.

“When the organic material is decomposing, it leaks carbon in the atmosphere. But a forest also has activities of storing carbon. On a clearcut, there is pretty much only the decomposition going on. And this means that here in Sweden it takes around at least seven