A high-value landscape is a section of a landscape that has a particularly high ecological value. High-value landscapes are used for strategic conservation planning and cooperation within green infrastructure, for the legal protection of forests and for sustainable forest management.
─High-value forest landscapes are an important basis for planning. It is in these landscapes that we should implement actions – both protection and management – for biodiversity. In large parts of these landscapes, land use can normally continue but with extra consideration of the natural environment. The idea is not to protect all the high-value landscapes, but to prioritise these areas for different biodiversity initiatives, says Claes Svedlindh, Nature department head at the Environmental Protection Agency.
High-value forest landscapes have long been demarcated in all counties, but protective efforts have progressed differently. They are defined on the basis of the presence of valuable forests, including protected forests and inventories of valuable forests such as the key habitat inventory.
─There is plenty of valuable forest that needs to be preserved for the future, and in this respect we all need to help each other – forest owners, government agencies and non-profits, concludes Svedlindh.
Contacts
Claes Svedlindh, Nature Department Head, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
claes.svedlindh@naturvardsverket.se