Widespread Unquantified Conversion of Old Boreal Forests to Plantations

Abstract

Across the boreal biome, clear-cutting of old, previously non clear-cut forests with high naturalness followed by tree planting or seeding is a major land use change. However, how much previously uncut forest has been converted to plantations remains unquantified. We combine Swedish national databases on clear-cuts and forest inventories to show that at least 19% of all clear-cuts since 2003 have occurred in old forests that were most likely not previously cut and planted or seeded. Old forests have been cut and lost at a steady rate of ∼1.4% per year for the same period, and at this rate they will disappear by the 2070s. There is further evidence that this type of unreported forest conversion is occurring across much of the world's boreal forest.