Protect all of Karatj-Råvvåive

Protect all of Karatj-Råvvåive

Started
August 26, 2020
Petition to
The Swedish EPA, Sw. Forestry Agency, Sw. Minstry of Environment, CAB of Norrbotten
Petition Closed
This petition had 11,327 supporters

Why this petition matters

Started by Daniel Rutschman

Planned Nature Reserve in Swedish Lapland is Threatened by Green-Washing Scheme 

Subalpine old-growth forest in Karatj-Råvvåive in northern Sweden, which previously was meant to become a nature reserve, is now at risk of being logged. Authorities are investigating the possibility to establish a so-called eco-park instead of giving the area formal and long-term protection. The organization Protect the Forest strongly opposes these plans and are now launching an international campaign. Please sign our petition and help us to save the forests in Karatj-Råvvåive.

Karatj-Råvvåive is a vast old-growth forest at the foot of the mountains in Jokkmokk in the northernmost part of Sweden. For more than a decade the environmental movement has fought to protect this 13000-hectare large area from logging. This forest is valuable for plants and animals, for people to enjoy and live in, for reindeer-husbandry, for the Sami cultural history and for the ancient forest itself. The area borders the more than 1000 square kilometer large nature reserve Pärlälvens Fjällurskog (the Pearl River Alpine Virgin Forest) and is thereby a part of one of Europe’s last large roadless primeval forest landscapes.

For many years Karatj-Råvvåive was intended to be given formal protection, and in November 2018 the northern half of the area was finally protected as a nature reserve. But for the southern half there is no solution yet, since the landowner Jokkmokks Allmänning has opposed protection. Instead the authorities and the landowners have initiated a process to create an eco-park there.

An eco-park is a voluntary commitment where parts of the forest are protected, but where forestry and other kinds of exploitation are still allowed on about half of the area. It is also an agreement with a time-limit of a maximum of 50 years.

We want the authorities to show that they are taking responsibility for Sweden’s environmental targets and not succumbing to pressure from the forest industry. To create eco-parks in forests with a high conservation value is pure green-washing and nothing else than a loophole for the forest industry to continue to cut down the last remains of Sweden’s old-growth forests.

Please show your support by signing our petition. Read more on our website:

www.protecttheforest.se

Watch our movie about Karatj-Råvvåive (subtitles in English and German):

https://youtu.be/HdBv5n41bQQ

Petition Closed

This petition had 11,327 supporters

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Decision Makers

  • The Swedish EPA, Sw. Forestry Agency, Sw. Minstry of Environment, CAB of Norrbotten