Now Elmia Wood opens – It’s high time to talk about the forest’s future!

The forest industry is hugely important to both the national economy and our ecosystem’s biodiversity. The question is: how can we help the forest to thrive while we also utilise its resources? At the world’s leading forestry fair, Elmia Wood in Jönköping on 2 – 4 June, this topic will be discussed by top industry professionals and representatives from Sweden’s political parties and industries.

The forest industry plays a huge role in the economy but it works on a very long timeline – it will be a full 50 or 60 years before decisions made now will influence developments!

Today’s highly topical question is: how can we make the forest industry more sustainable and innovative? Thriving forests are necessary for the climate and biodiversity. While we must take care to conserve a healthy and vital forest, we also depend on the resources it gives us.

One key issue is how we can ensure that our forests are as healthy as possible and thrive in the long term. Some people say we need to fell a larger proportion of the forest than we do now in order to get the optimal return, while others argue that we need a standing forest to bind carbon dioxide. As a result, many forest owners are unsure how to best manage their forests.

The forest industry is an important and extremely long-term industry. Not only does the forest give us raw materials for paper and wood products, the resulting waste also supplies renewable energy. In recent years, society’s dependence on the ecosystem has been the object of increasing attention both in Sweden and abroad. The forest provides many ecosystem services that are of great importance to our future well-being.

The issue of the forest’s own well-being is just as topical in Europe as a whole. The EU has a new forest strategy to increase the amount of forest on the continent. The aim is to guarantee that Europe’s forest industry is managed in a sustainable way.

We need to take into consideration expected climate changes, which will probably lead to more extreme weather conditions, such as storms, torrential rain, and extreme heat and cold. How can future forest owners care for their forests so that they can meet the challenges resulting from these climate changes?

At Elmia Wood in Jönköping topics such as these will be discussed by leading industry professionals and representatives from politics and industry. The focus will be on how the work to create a more innovative and sustainable forest industry should proceed.

The fair’s entire programme is available at elmiawood.se/wood – where we will also broadcasting live during the fair days from 2 to 4 June.