ABOUT THE FOREST
SKOGEN is a feature-length documentary for cinema and a number of short films for online publication. But THE FOREST is also an outreach campaign to get more people involved in this important topic.
"You can't pick a protected flower, but you can cut down the entire forest in which it grows."
After 150 years of harvesting our forests, we have turned what was nature and biodiversity into huge forest plantations. Today, forests are managed just like farmers' fields: the land is ploughed, planted, fertilized and harvested. Only a few percent of natural forest now remains as scattered islands across the country. This small percentage is decreasing every year. The result of short-term economic thinking has consequences for both humans and the animals and plants that live here. The film About the Forest seeks to explore the consequences of this short-termism. In a way, Swedish forests are in worse shape than the Amazon rainforests, because in the Amazon, the consequences of logging for people, animals, climate and nature have been demonstrated for decades. The world has become involved. In Sweden, few people raise their eyebrows when a forest is clear-cut, because this is the method we have used since the late 1950s. There is a general perception that this is what the Norrland coniferous forest should be used for, and that the profits go to our common good and our welfare. But the companies that own the forest also own the profits. Until now, 92% of our Swedish forests have been felled at least once and are now recreated, cultivated as timber plantations, where the trees have the same age and size. These cultivated pine trees are harvested at the age of 80, while the natural life cycle of a pine tree can be up to 1500 years.
SKOGEN is also a film about colonialism within Sweden. The resources of sparsely populated areas are exploited, but the money and jobs do not stop there.
SKOGEN is produced by Helion Film and Docster is an associate producer.
Director: Peter Magnusson
Producer: Ewa Cederstam