I have in this thesis problematized the Swedish climate transition potentially making Sweden one of the first fossil free welfare states in the world. The forest industry has been designated as one of the central components of climate transition in that it will help replace fossil fuels and other unsustainable materials. One group being affected by the increased forestry is that of the Sámi reindeer herders. Not only are they already affected by the effects of climate change to a great extent, but the forest industry in turn causes problems for reindeer husbandry and is a direct source of reduced quality in forests which provide lichen, the primary food source for reindeer. I have conducted interviews with five reindeer herders in the Malå forest Sámi village, in Västerbotten, in northern Sweden, to gain a keener understanding of the effects of climate change and the forest industry on reindeer herding, from a security perspective. The results show that the interviewees perceive climate change and large-scale forestry as a threat to their livelihood connected to reindeer husbandry and, in turn, a significant part of Sámi culture and existence, and that the two exacerbate the effects of each other. Among the effects, are the loss of forest that provides shelter and sustenance for reindeer, as well as the wellbeing and spirituality of the reindeer herders. Using theories drawn from Anthropocene and postcolonial literature, I hereby problematize the climate transition in Sweden in that it is based on a particular way of viewing the relationship between humans and nature. This causes problems for reindeer husbandry, and ultimately a reduction in security for reindeer herders that is reminiscent of and upholding the frictional and colonial bonds between Sweden and Sápmi (the region inhabited by Sámi people).

The climate means a number of different challenges for the forest, which can both suffer large-scale negative consequences, and at the same time create the conditions for more growth, depending on regional conditions. The Swedish forest industry has contributed to the development of Swedish welfare, which historically has also been supported by the government through laws and regulations that made this development possible. The historically strong support for the forest industry is argued in this work to have led to a path dependency in how Swedish forests should be managed in order to optimize growth in the way that the forest industry wants it. Furthermore, it is described how the path-dependent management methods were able to continue, and how today it creates problems when forest management methods need to be adapted in order to be resistant to a changing climate in the long term. A reluctance to adapt the industry's management methods instead puts great trust for climate adaptation in Sweden's large proportion of private forest owners and their local knowledge. This paper aims to investigate how the important local conditions affect forestry climate adaptation efforts, by collecting mixed quantitative and qualitative data with a survey, and using descriptive statistics and a thematic analysis to analyze the survey responses. The result shows that local forest owners have been given a role as forestry climate adaptation agents as a result of a deep-rooted path dependency in Swedish forestry methods, and that information about management methods and climate change affects the forest owners' knowledge of climate adaptation of forestry at the local level.

Hyggesfritt skogsbruk är en övergripande term som innebär att skogen sköts så att marken alltid är trädbevuxen utan att det uppstår några större kalhuggna ytor. Syftet med studien var att få en ökad förståelse för hur hyggesfritt skogsbruk fungerar i praktiken för privata enskilda skogsägare i Sverige. Frågeställningarna berörde vilka metoder som tillämpas, vilka mål som skogsägarna har och vilka utmaningar de ställs inför genom att bruka skogen hyggesfritt. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av en webbenkät. Resultaten visade att den vanligaste hyggesfria metoden för de privata skogsägarna var plockhuggning. De vanligaste målen med det hyggesfria brukandet var bevarad skogskänsla, ökad variation i skogen och ökad biologisk mångfald. Skogsägarnas utmaningar med det hyggesfria brukandet var främst relaterade till maskinparken, brist på kunskap och tillgång till rådgivning. Det finns ett behov av mer forskning om hyggesfritt skogsbruk.

Studien genomfördes som en enkätundersökning av tittarna till programserien slaget om skogen. Studien undersökte tittarnas källkritik, deras förtroende för utgivarna, om tittarnas åsikt förändrats efter att ha tittat på programserien samt hur respondenterna upplevde att programserien presenterat och speglat det svenska skogsbruket. En kombination av kvalitativa och kvantitativa data samlades in genom en enkätundersökning där totalt 168 respondenter valde att besvara enkäten, 49 respondenter besvarade den frivilliga frågan. Resultatet av studien visade att respondenterna hade ett lågt förtroende för public service och till viss del valde respondenterna att källgranska informationen i programserien. Respondenterna kände sig inte påverkade av programserien och hade inte ändrat åsikt om det svenska skogsbruket efter att ha tittat, de anser inte heller att det svenska skogsbruket presenterades och speglades representativt.

Uppsatsen tar sin utgångspunkt i en undran över det svenska skogsbrukets dominerande modell med kalavverkningar och påverkan på biologisk mångfald, och hur det relateras till den hållbara utvecklingens tre dimensioner. Syftet har därför varit att undersöka alternativa skogsbrukares förhållningssätt, visioner och hinder kopplat till brukandet av skogen och hur det påverkar både människa och miljö. Undersökningen har utförts med kvalitativ metod genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer för datainsamling, och tematisk analys för bearbetning av materialet. Det teoretiska ramverket kretsar kring post-antropocentrism och förhållningssätt till andra livsformer, och hur det kan påverka val som görs i skogsbruket. Resultatet visar att det finns en upplevd oro för rådande skogsbruk med kalavverkningar och risker kopplat till biologisk mångfald och framtida människors möjlighet till välbefinnande. Skogsbruket upplevs i dag som ohållbart och i behov av alternativa skogsbruksmetoder, som tar mer hänsyn till andra arter och de naturliga skogsekosystemen. För att uppnå detta presenteras av de alternativa skogsbrukarna visioner om ökad biologisk och ekologisk kunskap i samhället, och en mångfald vad gäller skogsbruksmetoder, ekonomiska alternativ och arter. / The thesis is based on a wonder about the Swedish forestry's dominant model with clear-cutting and impact on biodiversity, and how it relates to the three dimensions of sustainable development. The purpose of this study has therefore been to investigate alternative foresters approaches to the use of the forest and how it affects both humans and the environment. The study has been carried out by qualitative methods through semi-structured interviews for gathering of data, and thematic analysis for processing the data. The theoretical framework revolves around post-anthropocentrism and approaches to other life forms, and how it can influence choices made in forestry. The results show that there is a perceived worry regarding the current forestry model with clear-cuts and risks linked to biodiversity and the possibility of well-being for future humans. The forestry today is perceived as unsustainable and in need of alternative forestry models, which takes more consideration to other species and the natural ecosystems. To achieve this the alternative foresters presents visions of increased biological and ecological knowledge in society, and an increased diversity of forestry models, economic alternatives and species.

För klimatet spelar skogen en viktig roll eftersom den binder in koldioxid från atmosfären. Genom fotosyntes binds kolet in i biomassan och när organiskt material bryts ned bidrar det till kolinlagringar i marken. Idag finns det många studier om skogens kolinlagringar, men de undersöker endast nettoinbindningen av kolet i skogen och få studier visar hur mycket kol som totalt är inlagrat i en skog. Det finns inga studier om hur det ser ut i Sverige och det finns få studier som visar på skillnaden i kolinlagring mellan en produktionsskog och en urskog. I den här litteraturstudien presenterar jag hur mycket kol som är inbundet i den svenska skogen och hur det skiljer sig mellan produktionsskog och urskog. Genom att applicera data från en studie som undersökte hur mycket kol som är inbundet i skogen i Kanada på den svenska skogen kom jag fram till att det finns totalt mellan 5 413 och 6 798 miljoner ton kol inlagrat i den svenska skogen, men mer kol skulle kunna lagras. Medelåldern för när träd slutavverkas är i Sverige 101 år. Jag kom fram till att det lagras in ungefär 53 till 75 ton mer kol per hektar i en skog som är äldre än 140 år än i en skog som är mellan 101 och 120 år. Resultatet visar att det binds in mer kol i en urskog än i en produktionsskog och att det är viktigt att bevara de urskogar som idag finns för att kunna möta de klimatproblem vi står inför. / For the climate, the forest plays an important role because it binds carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Through photosynthesis, carbon is bound into the biomass and degradable organic material contributes to carbon storage in the soil. There are many studies on the forest carbon deposits, but they only examine the net binding of carbon, and few studies show how much carbon is stored in total. There are no studies on what carbon storage looks like in Sweden and few studies that show the difference in carbon storage between production forests and old-growth forests. In this literature study, I present how much carbon is bound in Swedish forests and how it differs between production forest and old-growth forest. By applying data from a study that examined how much carbon is bound in Canadian forests on Swedish forests, I concluded that there is a total of between 5 413 and 6 798 million tonnes of carbon stored in Swedish forests, but more carbon could be stored. In Sweden, the average age for when trees are felled is 101 years. I concluded that approximately between 53 and 75 tonnes more carbon per hectare is stored in a forest that is older than 140 years than in a forest that is between 101 and 120 years. The results show that more carbon is bound in an old-growth forest than in a production forest and that it is important to preserve the old-growth forests to reduce the climate problems we face.

Knowledge about forest measurements is essential for efficient and sustainableforestry. One important measurement is wood volume, both from an economicand an environmental perspective. Therefore it is crucial to measure wood vol-ume accurately and reliably. With airborne laser scanners, wood volume can beestimated at a large scale, more time efficiently than traditional, manual measure-ments. By utilising deep neural networks, we present methods to predict woodvolume on point clouds efficiently and accurately. Different network structuresfor point cloud regression are devised using field measurements from wood har-vesters and manual field measurements. To achieve more data, techniques tosplit up areas into smaller subareas and data augmentation methods were imple-mented. Our version of GDANet adapted for regression provided the best resultswith a RMSE of 62.68, MAPE of 24.7%, and relative RMSE of 28.0%. Furthermore,the final model produces more accurate wood volume predictions than more shal-low machine learning methods and predictions from Skoglig Grunddata.

An increasing wave of critique against conventional forestry favouring even-aged monoculture plantations and intense ground preparation in Sweden is arising, where some researchers are warning about the negative consequences of the long history of intense forestry and increasing extraction due to the growing demand for bioenergy has caused devastating consequences on ecosystems in forests such as loss of biodiversity. Additionally, reports are revealing that Sweden will not meet its own national environmental goals. Meantime, a growing interest in Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) has increased due to prioritising biodiversity and conserving ecological and social values in the forests. Therefore, this study aims to explore pathways towards more diverse and varied forest management by examining the attitudes, existing support and required incentives for stakeholders in the Swedish forest sector towards an increase of CCF. This study follows an interpretive approach, where qualitative semi-structured interviews are conducted with different actors within the Swedish forest sector along with a literature review. The empirical data is analysed through a coding procedure and analysed with the multi-level perspective approach. The main findings of this study suggest that the existing attitude and support contribute as well as prevent an increase of CCF to some extent, however, the required incentives are crucial for forest actors’ ability to increase CCF. To conclude, the incentives are discussed to affect the ability to increase CCF, and if implemented, the incentives will in turn influence the attitudes of willingness to increase CCF and the existing support to develop in relation to CCF.

Rapporten gick igenom Sveriges miljö- och klimatmål berörande skogensbiologiska mångfald samt klimatnytta och undersökte hur väl de fungeradeihop, tillsammans med detta gjordes intervjuer med individer i skogssektornsamt en kunskapsöversikt av tidigare forskning. Resultaten analyserades medforskningen och visade att målens behövda åtgärder till stor del gick emotvarandra. Det ansågs därför att ny målsättning och planering för hur dessabehövde genomföras för att säkerställa att dem hålls.

Lappugglans utbredningsområde kan vara påväg att förändras som respons till det moderna skogsbruket. I den här studien har jag fokuserat på lappugglors abundans vid kalhyggen av olika storlek med hypotesen att de föredrar hyggen av mindre storlek. Eftersom kalhyggena i södra Sverige i snitt är mindre så skulle det kunna vara en del i förklaringen att lappugglor börjat synas allt oftare söderut. Data laddades ned från artdatabanken och skogsstyrelsen och bearbetades i QGiS för att undersöka lappugglornas utbredning i relation till kalhyggen. Resultatet indikerar att ugglorna föredrar små framför stora kalhyggen och även kan dras till små hyggen. Resultaten visar också en trend söderut för ugglornas utbrednings mellan 2005 och 2020. Dessa resultat bekräftar att lappugglornas utbredningsmönster rör sig söderut och stödjer hypotesen att det är skogsbruk och kalhyggens storlek som driver denna utveckling. Mindre kalhyggen gynnar även andra arter än Lappugglor och kan därför generellt vara en god idé för att förena ekologi och ekonomi inom modernt skogsbruk. / The great grey owl may be adjusting its distribution area in Sweden in response to altered forestry practices. Here i focused on the abundance of owls in clear cut areas of different sizes with the hypothesis that owls prefer smaller clear cut areas. As clear cut areas are smaller in the south than in the north, such a preference could explain a trend of changing distribution southward. Data from artdatabanken and skogsstyrelsen were processed and analyzed in QGiS to investigate the spatial pattern of owl reports in relation to the locations of clear cuts. The results indicate that the owls prefer small over large clear cuts, and are indeed attracted to small clear cuts. The results also show a southward change in the distribution area from 2005 to 2020. These results confirm that the distribution of great grey owls moves southwards in Sweden and support the idea that this trend may be driven by the species being attracted to smaller clear cuts. Since smaller clear cuts benefit more species than owls it is generally a good idea to combine economy with ecology in modern forestry.