Citizen Scientists Step in to Keep the Plight of Sweden’s
Forests in the Public Eye Field guide-toting activists fight
logging plans by identifying rare critters in threatened forests
Sweden is usually at the top of the list of the world’s most
sustainable countries, which is why I traveled there in late
2011 to investigate claims to the contrary leveled by activists
at the country's forestry sector. Home to the biggest forests in
Europe, I found that trees are indeed falling at a remarkable
rate in Sweden, so the fact that its forestry industry also
claims to be a model of sustainable logging operations further
fueled my interest. The resulting investigative report found
that the Swedish forestry model, a self-policed regime that aims
to balance cutting and conservation, doesn’t work. The
conclusion that the forestry was producing much of its vaunted
green timber and pulp through unsustainable clear cutting of its
biodiversity-rich taiga, a surprising proportion of it old-
growth, caught the attention of read