Facts on the Swedish Forest Agency's formal protection and compensations
The statistics are partly covered by the formal protections of forests land decided by the Sweden Forestry Agency, which are habitat protection areas and signed nature conservation agreements, and partly compensations that the Sweden Forest Agency paid out to landowners. The compensation reported is infringement compensation to landowners for denied felling permission in montane forests and waiting agreement for area protection.
These statistics do not include nature conservation agreements signed as White-backed woodpacker (Dendrocopos leucotos) agreements with the former Bergvik Skog AB, nor so-called ecoparks signed with Sveaskog AB. More about delimitations and comparability can be found under the heading Other Statistics below.
The Swedish Forest Agency´s formal protection of forests land
A habitat protection area is a statutory way to protect small areas of great importance for flora and fauna. The reimbursement to the landowner corresponds to the decline in market value of the land plus 25 percent. The habitat protection regulations regarding forest land have been in place since 1994.
The possibility of nature conservation agreements has existed since 1993. The nature conservation agreement is a civil and time-limited agreement. The compensation varies depending on how long the contract is valid. The time can vary between one and fifty years. For a 50-year agreement, the landowner receives 60 percent of the area's net conversion value in compensation. Since 2015, it has also been possible to sign nature conservation agreements for areas with high social values. These may be areas that are frequently visited and used for recreation.
Waiting agreement for formal protection
As 1 January 2024 Swedish Forest Agency is offering property owners waiting agreements pending formal protection, and they are also included in the statistics. Since waiting agreements for formal protection are signed in the beginning of the process of an initiated case it is not decided which form of it will be in the end, habitat protection area or nature conservation agreement.
The agreement period for this form of agreements is normally two years. The agreement implies that the property owners refrain from forestry during the period. The property owners receive compensation in connection with the signing of the waiting agreement but entering into a waiting agreement does not mean that formal protection will be formed.
Discontinued formally protected areas
Some of the habitat protection areas and nature conservation agreements are repealed if, for example, a nature reserve is established for the land area for which they apply and if the agreement period for some nature conservation agreements expires.
The statistics about current protected areas do not include protected areas that have ceased.
Infringement compensation to landowners for denied felling permission in montane forests.
In 2020, a legal process was concluded that resulted in the Swedish Forest Agency starting to pay out compensation for infringement to landowners who had been denied felling permission in montane forests.
Rejuvenation harvesting (0.5 ha and larger) is one of the measures that must be notified to the Swedish Forest Agency by the landowner or his representative. Felling may begin no earlier than 6 weeks after the notification has been made to the Swedish Forestry Agency. In the forest close to the mountains, an application for a permit for regeneration felling is instead required and there is no corresponding 6-week rule and no lower area limit.
The Swedish Forest Agency makes decisions in each individual application case and the processing time is longer than for felling notifications, partly because field visits often need to be made on bare land. About that
there are very high natural values within the applied area, which is common in the forest close to the mountains, then the application for felling, in whole or in part, is rejected. The areas covered by rejection decisions are GPS-measured and marked in the field.
In the event of a rejection decision due to very high natural values, the landowner has the right to request compensation. The compensation that can be actualized is so-called infringement compensation for denied felling permission in montane forests and corresponds to 125 percent of the property's market value reduction as a result of the decision. Assessment of the compensation amount is done by measuring the volume in the field in the areas covered by the rejection decision. The Swedish Forestry Agency also collects other information about the area which, together with an analysis of relevant sales of forest properties in the surrounding area, forms the basis for the valuation and thus the infringement compensation.
Description of the statistics
The appropriation allocated to the Swedish Forestry Agency for establishing new habitat protection and nature conservation agreements also includes the infringement compensation for rejected felling in montane forests.
Infringement compensation is paid to landowners who have applied for a permit but have been refused felling in montane forests, due to the presence of high biodiversity in the montane region.
A habitat protection area is a statutory way to protect small areas of great importance for flora and fauna. The reimbursement to the landowner corresponds to the decline in market value of the land plus 25 percent.
The nature conservation agreement is a civil and time-limited agreement. The compensation varies depending on how long the contract is valid. The time can vary between one and fifty years. For a 50-year agreement, the landowner receives 60 percent of the area's net conversion value in compensation.
A waiting agreement implies that the property owners refrain from forestry during the period. The agreement period for this form of agreements is normally two years. Entering into a waiting agreement does not mean that formal protection will be formed. The grant that the Swedish Forestry Agency allocates to form new biotope protection and nature conservation agreements also includes compensation for waiting agreements.
Habitat protection areas include decided areas up to and including 31 December 2024, including non-legally binding decisions unless otherwise stated.
The nature conservation agreements include signed agreements, excluding areas included in white-backed and ecopark agreements. The statistics refer to agreements that were in force at the end of December 2024.
Infringement compensation according to above includes payments up to and including 31 December 2024.
Habitat protection areas and nature conservation agreements are also formed by other government authorities and municipalities.
The statistics presented here do not therefore give a complete picture of these instruments, only the formal protection signed by the Swedish Forest Agency. There are also other types of formally protected forest land, for example nature reserves. Complete statistics for all protected forest land is given by Statistics Sweden and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency later in the spring, in the publication Protected Nature.
For both forms of protection of forests land, no overlap analysis against other types of formal protection have been made.
The survey is part of Official Statistics of Sweden. All results are published in our statistical database.