Certification: why it matters

As an economic association Södra’s industrial facilities are owned by the more than 52,000 family forest-owning members who supply them with raw material, and who decide individually whether or not to become certified. 

”Certifying forest is a statement and a signal to the market and society about active, long-term and responsible forestry,” said Jonas Larsson, Senior Advisor Forestry at Södra Cell. ”In addition, Södra’s customers, like many consumers, demand certified raw materials. And the fact that the certification is reviewed by a third party is a seal of quality and authenticity.” 

With certification, the area of forest set aside in Sweden for nature conservation purposes has increased significantly. At the same time, many of the habitats that are known to be important for endangered species, such as dead wood, old trees, old forests and deciduous trees, have also increased significantly throughout the forest landscape. 

In the 1990s, Sweden set a national environmental target to increase the amount of voluntary set-aside to 730,000 hectares by 2010. Today, almost 1.4 million hectares of productive forest land are voluntarily set aside for nature conservation. This is a result of the certification systems.

At Södra, we are proud of how Swedish forestry has developed in recent decades, but we are not satisfied.. Since it is important to Södra that all forests with high natural values are preserved, we introduced a nature conservation premium in 2022 for forest owners with a large proportion of voluntary set-aside. Many of the biodiversity values in southern Sweden are dependent on nature conservation management and for this reason we have set a goal of implementing 3,000 hectares of nature conservation management (NS) annually from 2025. We are also working to improve our consideration of red-listed and endangered species and develop new business models for biodiversity.