"En Suède, déforestation n’est pas raison" in Revue XXI | Mélanie Wenger

Mélanie Wenger's long term investigation on Swedish forestry and paper industry was published in Revue XXI on August 19th.

For two years, she has been looking into the origin of our European paper and packaging in a cross-border team with Katharina Finke. This investigation, supported by the journalism fund, was conducted with the collaboration of investigative journalist Alexandre Brutelle at Environmental Investigative Forum and field expert Sebastian Kirrpu from Skydda Skogen.

Sweden is promoting the idea of a sustainable forestry industry throughout the European Union. But the reality shows the opposite: destroying the last old-growth Forest of Europe irretrievable, and a non-recyclable paper industry, along with strong lobbying efforts to influence new packaging and nature restoration laws in Europe.

With 70% of its land covered by forests, Sweden's forestry industry is a crucial part of the economy. That's why Sweden is good at shaping public perception with greenwashing. It is Europe's largest pulp producer. The main buyers of Sweden's paper and cardboard products are European countries, and production has skyrocketed since the pandemic due to the rise in online shopping. Sweden's forestry model relies on clear-cutting, resulting in 200,000 hectares of trees being cut annually. While forestry companies advertise that they plant three trees for every one cut, independent biologists argue that this doesn't equate to a forest. With only six per cent of Swedish forests protected, the paper and forestry industry is diminishing Europe's largest carbon sink, and for what? Higher profits. If they continue like this – according to independent experts- the last old-growth forests of Europe will be gone by 2070.

---