For a future, sufficient for our and nature's well-being.

Modern agroforestry/ forest gardens

Edible Resilient Ecosystems

A modern agroforestry is an edible ecosystem that produces fruits, berries, nuts and vegetables. It is created with the stability and production capacity of natural ecosystems as a model. Since 2015, I have been trying to rearrange my own garden as a forest garden, and the ecosystems are slowly developing. This year I'm trying to close the nutrient cycle with my own bokashi compost, grass clippings, and chipped branches, because berries and vegetables in a forest garden also need extra nutrition. The picture shows my blueberries blooming. Thorny rose bushes and tall hedges offer good cover for birds that may eat insect pests. There are many courses and a lot of literature on the subject. I personally like the book of Annevi Sjöberg and Philipp Weiss, the "Skogsträdgården: odla ätbart överallt".

Nature-based forestry

 A Common Ground Approach

In the heart of our communities, the forests stand not just as silent witnesses to time but as vibrant ecosystems critical to our economy, environment, and heritage. The transition from clear-cut to nature-based forestry presents an opportunity to harness these values in ways that resonate across the ideological spectrum, ensuring a prosperous and sustainable future for all.

Local Impact and Economic Benefits

Nature-based forestry practices promise to revitalize local economies through sustainable job creation. By adopting methods that mimic natural processes, we can ensure a continuous supply of timber, safeguarding jobs in logging, milling, and related industries. This approach not only secures the livelihoods of our communities but also opens up new markets focused on sustainability, attracting investment and fostering economic growth.

Conservation of Tradition and Natural Beauty

Our forests are more than timber reserves; they are a legacy of natural beauty and biodiversity passed down through generations. Nature-based forestry respects this heritage, aiming to conserve the land's ecological integrity. This method of stewardship ensures that our children and grandchildren will inherit a landscape that is as rich and productive as it is today, if not more so.

Technological Innovation and Free Market Solutions

Embracing nature-based forestry doesn't mean turning our backs on innovation or economic freedom. On the contrary, it encourages the development and application of cutting-edge technologies and practices that make forestry more efficient, sustainable, and profitable. By valuing ecosystem services within the market, we can create a competitive advantage for businesses that invest in sustainability, driving innovation and fostering a robust, resilient economy.

National Security Through Resource Independence

Healthy, biodiverse forests are less susceptible to pests, diseases, and the impacts of climate change, securing a domestic supply of wood and protecting our rural landscapes from fire and erosion.

In moving towards nature-based forestry, we are not merely adopting a new set of practices; we are investing in the very foundation of our prosperity, security, and heritage. This is a call to action that transcends political divides, appealing to our shared values of economic resilience, conservation, and stewardship of the land. By embracing this transition, we can safeguard our natural resources, ensure the well-being of future generations, and uphold our commitment to the principles of freedom and prosperity that define us.

Extending the GDP measure

Sufficiency and well-being

I participated virtually at the EU Parliament's "Beyond Growth" conference 15-17 May 2023. Speakers talked about how the green development requires huge amounts of resources, resources that are in short supply and around which economic and even aggressive conflicts are created. Yamina Saheb, lead author at the IPCC, addressed how important the concept of "sufficiency" is, a concept which she introduced in the IPCC's latest report. In the book "The Inner Level: How more equal societies reduce stress, restore sanity and improve everyone's well-being", 2019, the authors, Pr. Kate Pickett and Pr. em. Richard Wilkinson, show how less equal societies fare worse than more equal ones across a whole range of social measures - health, education, levels of violence, life expectancy and child wellbeing. The consequences are at a societal level and affect everyone, even those with a good income.

The Swedish Agenda2030 coordinator and WWF Sweden  have in publications May 2023 demanded that the GDP measure is extended.

Restoring our nature

Measuring biodiversity

We are losing nature, species and diversity rapidly now - in Sweden and in Europe. Our large monocultures, agricultural fields and spruce plantations, are spreading and there is a lack of functioning ecosystems with a diversity of species that live with and off each other. Our waterways and seas are fished out and polluted. Today, we often find nature with rich diversity around cities and communities, where nature has been saved for recreational purposes. 

But a lot is happening to protect and restore our nature. The EU Commission published in June 2022 a proposal for a nature restoration law.Within the framework of COP15, the UN has developed a "System of Environmental-Economic Accounting" (SEEA), which is a framework that integrates economic and environmental data to provide a more comprehensive and diverse picture of the interrelationship between the economy and the environment. The EU's research body JRC has applied SEEA to European forests, which you can read more about in an article published in Nature. The EU also plans to use environmental DNA, eDNA, to detect whether EU-imported timber products originate in deforested areas.