The chain from the forest to the end-user - in Sweden

Today the annual forest increment is 115 million in 3 per year in Sweden, but we harvest only 75 million in. This means that we have an annual increase of forest in Sweden. The last 85 years the Swedish forest has increased from 1.5 billion to 3.2 billion m(3). Nearly all forest is harvested by heavy vehicles. Only a few percent is harvested by motor saw. In forest areas where the soil isn't too poor and where the distance to heating plants isn't too far away we collect branches, tops and sometimes the stumps, too, for energy purposes. About 5 percent of all the logged volume consists of tops which earlier stayed at the logging area. The pulp industry takes 44 percent of the trunks and the sawmill industry also takes 44 percent. The rest, 7 percent, is fuel wood for heating dwellings. Branches and stumps are not included in the calculated forest m(3). But in recent years we have every year collected about 5 million m(3) of forest residuals or about 11 TWh in Sweden. The energy sector pays around 4 percent, the pulp industry 33 percent and the lumber mills 63 percent of the forest owners' net incomes. The four biggest research and education areas we have at Vaxjo University at the School of Technology and Design is Forest and Wood, Wooden Housing, Bioenergy and Heavy Vehicles. This chain from the forest to the end-user, in relation to the four areas fit together as hand in glove and this is in one of the most important areas for the Swedish economy.