Open geodata contributes to knowledge about Swedish nature conservation

Protecting nature is one of the measures decided by Parliament to achieve the national environmental quality objectives. In spring 2022, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Statistics Sweden released a report showing how Swedish nature is protected. Metria has helped to create the analyses for the 2021 report.

15 percent of Sweden's nature is protected

National parks, nature reserves, nature conservation areas, biotope protection areas and Natura 2000 are all areas that are part of Sweden's formally protected nature. By law, these must be given long-term protection to preserve the world's natural and cultural heritage and safeguard fundamental values such as clean water, clean air and unspoiled nature. Of Sweden's entire area of land and inland water, 15% is formally protected.

Analysis of open geodata contributes to knowledge

Open and easily accessible geographical information is a prerequisite for both implementing and monitoring Sweden's environmental objectives. Most of the geodata used in the analyses for this report are available as open data from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. One example is National Land Cover Data (NLCD ), which is an important basis for the analysis and is used to locate the habitat types that are protected. NMD is also used to monitor how much of the productive forest land is protected.

Knowledge of the information

Reliable analyses and the implementation and monitoring of environmental objectives also require

• knowledge of how to use spatial data to inform decision-making; how to interpret certain sets of information. What conclusions can be drawn by combining different data sets?

• knowledge of laws and regulations for formally protected nature to, for example, clear overlaps between different types of protection and avoid double counting in reporting

• ability to carry out advanced analysis of geographical information.
  
  

More than 100 new nature reserves

In 2021, the number of nature reserves increased by 101 areas. This means that Sweden now has more than 5 300 nature reserves. There were also 26 new Natura 2000 sites.

More than half of the new areas in nature reserves and Natura 2000 sites were forest land. A quarter were marine areas. 13% of the new protection included wetlands

The chart on the right shows the distribution of habitat types whose protection became effective in 2021.

Expanded international reporting

In this year's reporting, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency has revised the data submitted to the European database of protected areas. In the 2022 reporting, Sweden will report an additional 200,000 hectares. The international statistics will now be more comparable with the statistics reported nationally in Sweden.

• Read SCB's news: More than 100 new nature reserves (scb.se)

• Read Statistics Sweden's report: Protected nature
  
  

Did you know that...

• Sweden has protected nature for more than 100 years. In 1909, Parliament passed a law on national parks and established the first nine national parks.

• The largest new nature reserve in 2021 was the Slite archipelago, located on the eastern side of Gotland. It covers more than 6 300 hectares in total, including almost 6 000 hectares of sea.

• On average, 30% of Sweden's population lives within 1 kilometer of protected nature.