Tyresta national park. Photo: Nicklas Wijkmark

Sverige 3030 is the vision we need for a brighter future

For the last 1000 years we have fought a battle against nature in Sweden. It blessed us with iron and wood that fuelled our first wealth and helped turned us into a prosperous and safe country. Our great forests and abundant seas has served our once poor population. Today we have moved away from a resource economy to a technology economy. It’s time to finally pay back that debt and stop our fight against nature. It’s time for a new vision, Sweden 3030.

Vision 3030 aims to protect 30% of lands and water in protected areas by 2030. It aims to outlaw clearcutting of forests and move to sustainable forestry. It aims to ensure that all species that are currently red listed are on a positive path to health. It aims to ensure that 20% of all biomass is wild animals compared to 3% today. It will ensure that our fish stocks will be back to 1970’s levels by 2050 and double that by 2080.

It rests on 5 pillars:

1. Protect 30% of land and water by 2030 and make this the final generation overseeing a decline in their natural world.
2. Ensure all our citizens have access to truly wild and undisturbed land and water regardless of where they live and how much they make. Nature as a right not a privilege.
3. Stopping logging is the cheapest and most efficient way to reduce our CO2 emissions. Forests emit twice as much carbon as all other activities combined. We have 7 years to reach the Paris agreement, in 80 years when trees have grown back it’s too late.
4. Nature tourism is the future while extractive industries are the past. We have a huge potential to become a world leading nature tourism destination.
5. The UN has labelled this the decade of ecosystem restoration while the EU has demanded that we protect 30% of land and water by 2030. It’s time for us to be the leader not the laggard in this transition.

Having a vision is crucial for the war of ideas

Sweden currently lacks a coherent vision for how to handle our nature. A multitude of organisations are working on various competing initiatives and some have had huge success such as the reintroduction of beaver which is now becoming common in Stockholm. On other fronts such as fishing, forests and a…