ABSTRACT
Forestry constitutes the basis for some 10% of export value in Sweden (2018), making it an economically significant contributor to the country’s economy. Related to this, over the centuries wood has come to be institutionalized as a primary land use, not least related to export as well as the forest industry, so significant today. This role is visible in legislation, with wood production given preference as the “ongoing land use” – making it the use to which other sectors, to some extent, must relate – and also remaining enthroned in special legislation rather than integrated in environmental or planning legislation. The production logic that forms the basis for the sector means that issues relating to future use can also be seen as related to this logic, with climate change adaptation- and mitigation-related strategies targeting those in line with industrial forestry, such as shortening rotation times rather than investing in mixed forest. This chapter thus shows that even that which can be defined as a climate change adaptation is crucially dependent on the national context in which it is defined.
