Sveaskog logging of old forest in Luokta-Mávas Sámi reindeer land (Sweden)

In 2021 The Local reported that Sveaskog, the Swedish state-owned forest company, wanted to fell about 700 hectares in the Luokta-Mávas reindeer grazing area in Norrbotten. Lars Anders Baer, a Sámi representative and head of the area, said that the parties had agreed on only 200 hectares and that 95 per cent of Sveaskog's land there was reindeer pasture.

Reindeer feed in winter on lichen, which grows in quantity only in old forest; clear-felling with soil scarification destroys it. The area of lichen-rich forest has fallen by 71 per cent since the mid-20th century, according to the record reviewed.

Olof Johansson, Sveaskog's forest policy director, acknowledged that the company's methods had at times been 'quite rough', and said that under the law it could override Sámi objections but had chosen to return to the table.

In neighbouring Maskaure Sámi village (Arjeplog), Sveaskog's plans in 2020 covered the sale of 10,400 hectares (more than 2,000 hectares of it pasture) and felling of 400 hectares in 32 forests.

A 2022 Lund University study found that 19 per cent of felling in Sweden in 2003–2019 took place in forest never previously felled, and that unprotected old forest was lost at 1.4 per cent a year, with no official map of it. Under the FAO definition, felled and replanted land remains forest, so the loss does not appear in the statistics.