Forestry in the Name of the Nation

The forestry sector, including the pulp and paper-industry, is central to the Swedish bioeconomy. With the double environmental crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, the practices of the Swedish forest sector have become intensely debated during the last decade. The debates have been between both the forest industry and environmentalists within in Sweden, but also between the Swedish government and the EU, in relation to EUs biodiversity strategy for 2030. While the Swedish forestry model is based on clear cuttings, several environmental organizations, as well as the EU, argue for models based on continuous forest cover to preserve biodiversity. Successive Swedish governments of different ideological leanings (centre-left compared to authoritarian nationalist) have argued against EU interference in what they regard to be a national industrial practice. Also, the forest industry has continuously argued for intensive forestry to replace fossil fuels and plastics with biobased alternatives. This paper analyses the communications strategies of the PR-company Svensk Skogskommunikation AB (Swedish Forest Communication) which was started in 2016 and filed for liquidation in 2024. During these years, the company spent more than 16 million USD, to convey a message of the benefit of Swedish forestry towards an energy transition and the importance of the industry to the Swedish economy. The company was originally jointly owned by three forestry companies (one being the fully state-owned Sveaskog, the biggest forest owner in Sweden), and one industry organization. In 2021, after negative media attention, Sveaskog sold its shares in the company. The discourse and framing analysis will be done by looking at how the forest has been framed as a national issue, and how it fits with the concepts of resource nationalism and ecomodern nationalism.