Response to interpellation 2023/24:63 on storm Hans
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD argues that the forestry industry and forest owners themselves bear the responsibility for managing storm damage and that there are no plans for specific compensation measures 1. KD emphasizes that the forest is a strategic resource for growth and climate adaptation 2. KD argues that authorities handle the operational management and that forest owners should have good insurance coverage 2. S argues that the government is not making any efforts for those who are severely affected 3 4. S criticizes that small-scale forest owners do not receive compensation due to high deductibles 4. S considers that the Minister for Rural Affairs is not living up to promises regarding a new forest policy 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! I have been asked if I intend to take measures to support all affected stakeholders within the area affected by the storm Hans and, if so, what those measures are.
In August, the storm Hans hit an area in northern Västerbotten with full force. Up to 1 million cubic meters of forest are estimated to have been blown down.
The Swedish Forest Agency, based on experiences from the storms Gudrun and Per, has developed routines for handling major storm damage. The Swedish Forest Agency's various districts have a specific responsibility to monitor and alert if significant and noteworthy damage occurs or threatens to occur. Upon suspicion of major storm damage, the Swedish Forest Agency shall make an ocular assessment of the damage level within the storm-affected area to obtain a total picture of the extent of the damage. The information from the districts' assessments is compiled by damage coordinators. An established contact network with major actors within the forestry sector is utilized to incorporate their perceptions before the first preliminary estimates are established.
Depending on the extent of the damage, information initiatives are carried out, among other things, to the media, forest owners, and the forestry sector. Close cooperation takes place with the forestry sector and other relevant authorities, among other things within the framework of sector councils and the central forest protection committee. The Swedish Forest Agency is also responsible for supervision according to regulations concerning, among other things, forest protection, logging notifications, rationing rules, as well as environmental considerations and subsequent forest management.
Even though the Swedish Forest Agency has an important role for supervision and coordination, the responsibility for the implementation of the operational measures lies with the forestry sector. It is also a natural part of the sector's responsibility. The forestry sector as a whole, with forest owners' associations and forestry companies, now takes a major responsibility for assessing the extent of the damage and for continued work with clearing and transport of the wind-felled timber. The Swedish Forest Agency grants exemptions to accelerate the clearing process.
The County Administrative Board is the administrator of the affected nature reserves and is responsible for ensuring that any measures are carried out according to the management plan due to the storm felling.
Individual forest owners are affected by storm damage over time, and forest owners are expected to have insurance coverage to cover parts of the damages. At the current time, there are no plans for specific compensation measures for affected stakeholders.
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister for Rural Affairs Peter Kullgren! I have previously submitted a written question regarding specifically storm Hans and how the government intends to handle this.
Then I asked whether a general exemption was possible specifically regarding the area concerned that was hit by a storm for practically ten minutes on an August day. Norra Västerbotten appeared for a long time to be escaping storm Hans, which had raged across the country for a long time, several days. But then one afternoon, storm Hans struck.
In an area - a corridor approximately seven miles in length and between four and five kilometers wide, over 75,000 hectares - practically all the forest has been blown down or, even worse, blown apart. What has happened in this area is that there is a very large amount of destroyed forest, which cannot be sold as sawlogs. At best, it can be sold as pulpwood. It is clear that this affects the affected forest owners even more.
There are exemptions that one can apply for. From what I have found out, the Swedish Forest Agency had, on August 29, processed approximately 80 exemption applications positively. They had rejected three, and they had over 70 remaining. Since some time ago, no more exemptions have been granted.
What the Sami village and the state-owned company Sveaskog did quite initially was to sit down and agree that they had a common problem: We need to get the timber out together.
Samebyn was very interested in it going quickly. Samebyn, which in this case is primarily Malå sameby, estimates its damages to be approximately 5 million kronor. One can wonder if it is something that can generate some form of support or not. The Swedish Forest Agency's handling was that they asked questions to the sameby at every permit application, even though they had said that the most important thing for them was to get the timber out quickly. The responsiveness was not particularly good from the Swedish Forest Agency's side, even though they have also worked proactively here - that is what I mean.
What we see now is, just as the Minister for Rural Affairs says in his response, that we have a business sector, a forestry sector and forest owners who have themselves initiated a major effort. Sveaskog alone has 36 logging permits today, and we must remember that Holmen, Norra Skogsägarna and SCA also have their own logging permits in the area. It is they who are now carrying this out.
We can see that initially many road damages occurred. When a lot of timber is to be transported out from very wet areas, the roads are largely destroyed, and that costs money. Now, thankfully, it has become cold and frozen over, so we have received help from above. But from the government and the Minister for Rural Affairs, there is nothing.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! During a normal year, approximately 1 million cubic meters of forest fall due to storms in Sweden. But in line with climate change, the storm damage is expected to increase to an ever larger and growing volume.
The year 2022 was a year with relatively few storms. Despite this, approximately 2.2 million cubic meters of forest were assessed to have been damaged in Götaland. The Swedish Forest Agency assesses that the average storm damage will increase to approximately 4 million cubic meters on average until 2050 and to 5 million cubic meters until the year 2100.
In addition to costs for forestry, storms also cause significant costs for society. Not least, they reduce the future availability of biomass for the green transition. We therefore need to continuously take measures to climate-adapt forestry and, not least, to reduce the risk of storm damage.
Regulation 2018:1428 on the climate adaptation work of authorities requires that there shall be an action plan within the designated authorities' areas of responsibility. As the member surely knows, the government is working on developing a strategy for climate adaptation.
Storms in recent years have contributed to a certain storm adaptation already beginning to take place within forestry. A number of forestry companies and forest owners' associations have management instructions that include storm adaptation. To reduce forest damage after storms, more storm-resistant tree choices, early thinning as well as planning and delimiting of the logging areas are important measures to consider as a forest owner. When forest stands exceed 20 meters in height, the risk of storm damage increases rapidly. Spruces, which have shallower root systems, normally fall more easily than pines and deciduous trees.
My State Secretary Dan Ericsson has recently visited the severely affected area in Västerbotten. He has told me about the extensive damage and also about the damage to the sameby's facilities in the area. Just as the member said, the damage is worst in an area five kilometers wide and seven miles long between Norsjö and Malå. One sameby is located in the area.
Now both the forestry industry and the Swedish Forest Agency are focusing on a rapid and safe clearing operation to manage storm-felled timber and reduce the problems for the sameby. The Swedish Forest Agency is helpful with dispensations to quickly remove the storm-felled timber.
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker and Minister for Rural Affairs! Just as governments come and go, so apparently do storms. We have had Gudrun, Per, and Hilde.
Storm Gudrun also changed the insurance compensations. It is now 100 cubic meters that applies in the deductible, i.e., before one receives compensation. This means that many of the smallest forest owners do not get anything from the insurance. This is a general concern which, together with climate change and other changes, such as a larger proportion of rain, heavy rain and other things, will have consequences.
This is something that forest policy needs to take hold of. Despite promises from not least Peter Kullgren's party, but also from other right-wing parties, that the forest should be an important part, I do not quite hear here that the forest is this important part. From the Minister for Rural Affairs' answer, it appears rather that it is the industry itself that is to handle this.
I had some fun googling storm Hans. It moved across the entire country, with many floods and other damages as a result. The insurance industry itself estimated that there are somewhere between 9,000 and 10,000 insurance claims in the whole country.
We have a new Minister for Civil Defence, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, who is traveling to his home county of Dalarna and promising measures. The question then is: Does there therefore need to be a minister from the county itself for the government to make any measures north of Dalarna? This government has, unlike previous governments, no minister from northern Sweden. It is appreciative that Dan Ericsson has visited and looked at the damages, but we have still not seen any initiative for measures for those who have been hit particularly hard.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! I can assure the members that the government sees the forest as a strategic resource for a robust Sweden and for jobs and growth throughout the country. Access to forest biomass is also a central factor for us to be able to phase out fossil materials and fossil energy, and healthy and well-growing forests are a prerequisite for sustainable forestry.
It is somewhat symptomatic: As soon as something happens, it is argued from the opposition's side that a minister should immediately act and do absolutely everything. I know that the opposition knows that the operational management of most activities in Sweden, both in times of crisis and in non-crisis times, is primarily handled from an agency perspective.
Since then, it is obviously extremely central that one shows commitment and participation and is responsive to the problems that can be seen in a potential crisis situation - it can range from anything from a swine fever outbreak or a problem that arises after a storm like storm Hans. It is clear that as a government, one analyzes, follows up and has a dialogue with the relevant authorities as well as often visits those directly affected and speaks with them.
As I mentioned earlier, it is extremely central that forest owners have as good an insurance protection as they can have, and for many forest owners, I believe that recurring storms are a reminder of how important it is to review one's insurance protection and have as good a protection as possible for the future.
Isak From (S)
Madam Speaker! The County Administrative Board has, of course, been on site, and County Governor Helene Hellmark Knutsson has specifically visited the site because there are several nature reserves within the area where the forest also lies down. That issue needs to be handled by the County Administrative Board, or the state as the landowner.
I think perhaps that this will be resolved, but the County Administrative Board has the overall responsibility to see what is needed. The part that belongs to Malå-Sorsele lies within the sameby's year-round lands, where the sameby, therefore, has activities year-round. Norsjö lies below the lappmark border, and there it is a winter grazing area for several different samebyar. All of these are affected in different ways and will also face increased costs for, for example, foddering, new fencing, and other parts.
This is also the Minister for Rural Affairs' area of responsibility. I want to conclude with that, because the Minister for Rural Affairs and his party Kristdemokraterna were very offensive during the election campaign. A completely new forest policy for forest owners was promised. Will the Minister for Rural Affairs learn from the climate changes that are causing great damage for individual forest owners - if there even becomes a future forest bill? Until now, it has only been said that the forest issues should be investigated again, despite the fact that there are many completed proposals from the previous government.
Landsbygdsministern Peter Kullgren (KD)
Madam Speaker! I can promise the member that we continue to actively drive forest issues. I believe the member also heard what the Prime Minister said in the government statement, as the member probably listened a little extra when the Prime Minister spoke about the forest. Otherwise, it can be read afterwards.
In a global perspective, Sweden has been relatively spared from the major storm catastrophes; since 1930 we have only had two really large storms, the latest of which was storm Gudrun in 2005. As I have said previously, the responsibility for taking care of the storm damage lies with the forest owner. Private forest owners often let a forest owners' association or a forestry contractor handle the practical work because one should avoid manual work in storm-damaged forest.
A changed climate implies both opportunities and threats for Swedish forestry. Storms are something that both society as a whole and forest owners need to be prepared to handle, and I view it positively that the forestry industry - but also the state - is taking large steps in this area. I cannot, however, say today what eventual measures may need to be taken after the autumn and winter work of taking care of the storm-damaged forest. The government is, as said, following the situation closely, and we will take appropriate measures if needed.
Thank you for the commitment and for a good debate, Isak From!
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.