Norway’s forests hold more timber than ever – but growth is declining in parts of the country

“In spruce forests in Eastern Norway – and the entire forested area in Innlandet County, harvesting and natural mortality now exceed the annual growth increment,” says Johannes Breidenbach, forest researcher and Head of Norway’s National Forest Inventory.

The National Forest Inventory is a national monitoring programme that has followed developments in Norwegian forests for over one hundred years.

The reasons for these dramatic changes are complex. The 2018 drought summer led to more dead trees, and high timber prices have contributed to increased harvesting. And there is plenty of available forests – much of the forests planted during the 1950s are now mature and ready to be harvested.

“That harvesting exceeds growth during certain periods is not necessarily a problem in the short term,” Breidenbach says.

“However, the situation is new in modern times. And we cannot continue like this forever.”

“This creates a whole situation which mandates updated calculations of the sustainable harvest level, i.e. how much timber we can harvest without causing a shortage of mature forest in the future,” Breidenbach says.

New knowledge about Norway’s forests

The new findings about Norway’s forests have recently been published in the new NIBIO report “Forests and Forestry in Norway”, previously known as “Sustainable Forestry in Norway”.

The change in title from “Sustainable Forestry in Norway” to “Forests and Forestry in Norway” is intended to better reflect the breadth of the content of the annual report.

“The report is not only about forestry, but more about the forest in general,” says Oliver Moen Snoksrud, advisor at the Norwegian National Forest Inventory at NIBIO and one of the report’s editors.

Many of the main chapters are revised with new analyses and updated text, e.g. the chapters on undisturbed forests, forest-dwelling species on the Red List, environmental registrations in forests, and the extent of planted forests.

“Among the new elements is a more detailed classification of forest area – based on degree of naturalness – providing a more nuanced picture of forest structure,” Snoksrud says.

Much of the knowledge presented in the report derives from the annual field registrations carried out by the National Forest Inventory field crews. They visit around 13,000 locations across the country every five years, one-fifth every year; recording tree species, tree height and diameter, in addition to a range of other factors, such as the amount of deadwood, the presence of bilberries, and browsing damage from deer species such as roe deer, moose and red deer.

More than 20 experts from Statistics Norway (SSB), Skogkurs, the Norwegian Agriculture Agency, NTNU, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, NINA and NIBIO have contributed to the new report.

Forests are central to both climate policy and nature policy

“The report is intended as an important contribution to a more knowledge-based public debate and provides a comprehensive overview of the state of Norway’s forests,” says NIBIO’s Director General, Ivar Horneland Kristensen.

Forests provide the basis for employment and value creation through forestry, wood processing industry, and the bioeconomy. At the same time, forests are habitats for a rich biodiversity and are important for outdoor recreation.

“Forests also play a central role in addressing several of our global challenges,” Kristensen says.

“Forest-related issues rank high on the political agenda – both nationally and internationally –  and the management of Norwegian forests must be viewed in connection with global climate and biodiversity goals, carbon sequestration and efforts to halt biodiversity loss.”

“Today’s forest management is therefore largely about balancing climate and environmental considerations with the need for jobs, value creation and vibrant local communities,” Kristensen concludes.