The Impacts of Industrial Logging in the Great Northern Forest

THE IMPACTS OF INDUSTRIAL LOGGING IN THE GREAT NORTHERN FOREST Greenpeace/Jani Sipilä 1 THE GREAT NORTHERN FOREST EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Great Northern Forest, the boreal forest our relation with the forest on scientific facts. [...] In Sweden, the for a wealth of species, from birds that nest in region of the Great Northern Forest with the longest history of large-scale industrial logging, there has been the cavities of dead trees, to a host of special- a decline in populations of hundreds of forest species ist insects, lichens and fungi. [...] Most of region to region.[32] the carbon in the Great Northern Forest is in its soils, with only 5% in the trees themselves.[16] The composition, in terms of tree species of the Great Northern Forest varies across the region, depending on soil type, climate and the impacts of industrial logging (see How does industrial logging influence tree compo- sition?). [...] Industrial logging is causing a large-scale shift in the age-class of trees towards young stands at the expense of old growth.[181] A recent study projected that, under current rates of industrial logging and fire, the proportion of old forests in western Que- bec would reach “a minimum level rarely seen in the natural landscape in the past”.