Can Lapland’s primeval forests be saved? | DW Documentary

Primeval forests in northern Europe are threatened by logging operations. But conservationists' calls for more protection are making headway. Sweden’s forestry giant, Sveaskog, will leave more forest alone, which will benefit the Indigenous Sami.
On maps, Lapland looks like one giant forest. But as you advance north in the border area between Sweden and Finland, the signs of logging become more and more apparent. That is due, in part, to Sveaskog, Sweden’s largest owner of forestland.
Greenpeace targeted Sweden’s state-owned company with months-long demonstrations. Sami reindeer herders have also long been fighting to protect their last winter grazing pastures.
Finland is ahead of the game thanks to a protest 20 years ago in Inari, the heart of Finnish Sami culture. As a result, it was decided to leave part of the primeval forest standing rather than chopping it down to become disposable paper cups, newspapers, and toilet paper.
Sveaskog is now pledging to cut down fewer trees in the future and leave room for the traditional reindeer herding practices of the Indigenous Sami. The forest will once again be a nursery to hundreds of baby reindeer.
#documentary #dwdocumentary #forest #Lapland
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[@MrTomasz23]

I have been to Inari after 2003. I didn't know there were protests there in 2003. It's a beautiful place, and the forests are needed for ecology. Very glad they were successful and Greenpeace and E.U. thank you for helping 😀

[@CMoore8539]

Thank you so much DW for sharing this video with us! Absolutely Beautiful!!!❤

[@DWDocumentary]

Thanks a lot for watching and for your positive feedback. We appreciate you taking the time to comment and are glad you like our content!

[@GermanMic]

Truth can be truly beautiful, especially from the comfort of home! Reality is, it's absurdly ugly, what's happening to our mutating earth! Love & blessings

[@theotheranswer]

Anyone know the song/singer at the beginning? Beautiful voice and melody

[@tovanygren5783]

I am from the north of Sweden and know many people who own and manage forest and I say that we need more regulations against clearcutting. People say other alternatives aren’t economically viable but if we keep letting people and companies do forestry this way then there won’t be any incentives to find other alternatives that are better for the environment AND economically viable. And also, thank you DW Documentary for looking past the numbers of trees in our “forests” and showing the world that many of them are managed more like any other agricultural field, very well made documentary.

[@MrTomasz23]

Logging companies, please listen to the Sami. Don't be arrogant and do what you like with land.

[@paulheydarian1281]

*You must make them do it.*

[@Dani68ABminus]

Thank you for another great documentary! They clear-cut some forest behind a house we lived in years ago. It was brutal to watch and I cried often. Many birds in my backyard became sick in the wake of this event. You could say it was coincidence, but the stress that the wildlife was put through was palpable.

[@Duececoupe]

Used to live not too far from the polar circle in Sweden, spent a lot of time in Lapland, miss it dearly! Most excellent video DW, as you've come to expect from you! I don't always with everything, but that does NOT take anything away from the quality of your work, keep it up please! 👍🏻👌🏻👏🏻🏆🥇

[@DWDocumentary]

Thanks a lot for watching and taking time to comment!

[@n0namesowhatblerp362]

It truly is astonishing how fast the climate has changed. Im 34 years old and the winter I experienced as a child are worlds apart from winters now. Worlds.

[@curtrice6060]

I support your cause. I’m 80. Was a fisherman. We didn’t take care of the ocean.😢

[@tsg2009]

even worse is how much it's changed in the last 10 years, the next 5 is gonna be rough

[@GermanMic]

Well I'm 45, & I remember being warned when I was like 11, what yall think was gonna happen! We been duked!

[@tsg2009]

@@GermanMic whose denying anything here mate

[@ItzCoopzFtw]

Even here in NZ. The jet stream has retreated further south, slowed down, and so the weather events we are getting are longer, erratic and more severe. We've also had more abnormal snow, rain and heat during periods when it either shouldn't have come, or should have been the polar opposite weather. I'm not even 30. I also Fish with the cuzzies and bro, We've all noticed Cod moving further south, and Snapper not showing where they used to, or only juveniles. People are turning a blind eye to this, or just don't give a toss.

[@curtrice6060]

Please , may the world support and protect these people. The world needs these people and their love of “ Mother Earth “ ! ❤ 😅

[@JasonBatemanC]

We just need to world to stop using computers to watch these videos, or using paper products.

[@GermanMic]

Too little, too late! If you don't become one of those people, who's gonna reinforce them!? Earth is screaming for help on her last breaths, we are the problem, we have to be woken one way or another! Love&blessings

[@beyondtheodyssey]

Everything is possible if you work together. Lapland, which is the Sámi homeland of Europe’s last natural forests . Old pines in this forest can be up to 800 years old, and dead standing trees and snags can be thousands of years old. Almost all unprotected old-growth forests in Finland are located in Lapland, and mostly in Upper Lapland. The fate of Upper Lapland's forests is also linked to the survival of Europe's only indigenous Sami culture. So Let’s save the old-growth forests of Upper Lapland together. Donate now to the protection of Europe’s last remaining natural forests.

[@infogang3603]

The Sami aren't indigenous, they arrived in Scandinavia several thousand years after the Norse.

[@vicooo1498]

@@infogang3603 that's not what indigenous means.

[@infogang3603]

@@vicooo1498 Yes it is, indigenous means to be a native/original people of a place.

[@vicooo1498]

@@infogang3603 No it does not. It means your people were there AND had no say when country borders were drawn.While both germanic and saami peoples started their existence at the same time in history, the saami had no say when today's state lines were drawn, and still have no say in state politics. indigenousness is about oppression and the right to self-govern- this is why the Komi, Nenets and so on do NOT count as indigenous: in theory, thay have their own republics.

[@infogang3603]

@@vicooo1498 that definition is just goalpost moving gibberish made to conveniently exclude people you don't like.

[@DaniRaj666]

I was almost a month in Inari 2021...lots of felled forest and some very beautiful scenery and nature, beautiful river also and nice lakeside.

[@missshroom5512]

It makes my whole insides feel sick watching them just grab those trees with that heavy equipment 😔👎🏼🌎💙

[@Rnankn]

Agreed. It is so intuitively wrong to me, I just assumed people would never go too far. There should be something akin to sacred religious significance or constitutional primacy

[@stormietvannglass]

Thats the correct emotional response.

[@RandomTrols]

If that's the last old-growth forest than i'm afraid we got none anylonger

[@jansoltes971]

If indigineous people still have to fight for their rights in Europe, imagine what it´s like elsewhere. What a sad world.

[@kenseitakesi4521]

We life under capitalist tyranny! Damn fasist have ruined my homeland. Lapland is in ruins.

[@TheSeanathon23]

Most people in Europe are the indigenous people lol

[@jansoltes971]

@@TheSeanathon23 Sure. But in Lapland specifically the Saami people are indigenous (they´ve been living in that area for millenia), whereas Norwegians or Swedes are relatively new arrivals in what are now the northern regions of their national states. Not to mention that the way Saami were treated by their more aggressive neighbours resembles the fate of indigenous people elsewhere in the world (and this not just a European thing - the same happened in Africa with Khoi-San tribes vs Bantu farmers, Ainu people in Japan vs Japanese who arrived later, etc, etc).

[@deaganachomarunacathasaigh4344]

​@@jansoltes971Irish, Welsh, Cornish, Bretons, Basque, Latvians, Lithuanians, Polish, Ukrainians, Balkans, Albanians, Tartars. I could go on and on. These groups are all Indigenous in Europe to their respective regions

[@somaghosh2960]

Nature always beautiful✨. Here many things indirectly exposed DW.

[@claudiaweinert9117]

Thank you for this important docu!!!

[@plantjunkie69]

great content, could've been twice as long and I'd still want more

[@DWDocumentary]

Thank you for watching and the positive feedback :)

[@lidep3992]

Beautiful and very interesting. Thank you for sharing this amazing program.

[@DWDocumentary]

Thanks for watching. Glad you enjoyed it!

[@nicolestewart]

Oh wow! This is a tragedy. I remember back in high school they were showing us a documentary what was happening to the Amazon forest and the issues with the oil companies too. The forests there are nothing like what I’ve ever seen. So beautiful

[@ebthedoc4992]

Thanks, DW, for this documentary excursion into mankind’s ancient communion with Mother Nature, as Polar Samii Reindeer Herders still try to live in, and preserve it. Our family has age-old roots, back to times Ancient Rome was still a Republic. They named us Nemetes, for our nurturing Mother Goddess of Nature, Nemetona. Slavs still pun on the name, for Germans, because it also means “Mutes” - as in “Can’t speak Slavic,” and call us “Nemyetzkiy”! We emigrated as refugees from the ruins of WW II Germany, first to Canada, then the US. And we’ve always loved the Forest Primeval. Preservation of Nature is the very first statute of the Family Corporation our parents founded, in the early ‘60s. Properties we hold, here in New England, are densely mixed-forest refuges for varied wildlife (and my cherished sources for delicious mushroom treasures!). I have met Mooses at arm’s length, but I tend to skitter away from bears, especially mothers with cubs!

[@DWDocumentary]

Thanks a lot for watching an taking the time to comment!

[@Skogen594]

People need to stand up to these tree harvesters. Please do something!!!

[@tylergarb]

DW! Please, come to Manitoba and check in with the Morning Star Camp. They're trying to prevent a silica mine in their homelands which is threatening the already extremely damaged ecosystems of lake winnipeg and the surrounding areas. There's a lot of stuff like this in canada and we could use more exposure of it.

[@lisamalin3176]

Thanks for sharing thos video thank you Greenpeace

[@jagbirshergill2294]

Hi DW, there was a documentary titled ‘How GMO seeds have become a big business’. I cannot seem to find it, seems like you made it private. I really wanted to show it to a friend, could you please make it public or give me access?

[@samshepperrd]

So much reusable lumber goes into landfills. We have nonprofit stores in the US called Habitat for Humanity that accepts tax deductible donations of surplus building materials that they sell in their stored. If you can find what you're looking for there you can save a lot of money. Profits go to build houses for disabled veterans and deserving families who could never afford to buy a home.

[@PuuroLehma]

Old growth forests are rare but still somewhat common in finland and other nordics i would say

[@MickJay3]

This is exceedingly barbaric. I'm praying for peace 🙏🏿

[@GermanMic]

No justice, no peace! Barbaric it is! I'm praying for love & justice from above! Peace be with you!

[@pigboypunk]

protect the forest from the government!

[@kenseitakesi4521]

People of north europe you have nothing to lose but you chaings!! People unite now against tyranny!!

[@salyluz6535]

What is ‘chaings?’

[@kenseitakesi4521]

@@salyluz6535 you have in you hands. Metal thinks. Slaves have them

[@evilivan7271]

The entire border between Russia and Finland is a green belt.

[@paulheydarian1281]

Let's hope there won't be a nuclear war soon, so that the lovely trees remain intact. Humans are dumb, arrogant creatures. Sometimes I wish the trees and animals would take over.

[@alexi2460]

Thank you for educating us, amazing information.

[@DWDocumentary]

Thank you for watching and taking the time to comment! Be sure to check out our channel for more content. :)

[@nuusgtattoo25]

Sapmi for Sami✊

[@moniho6907]

God, at least give us subtitles when the man speak!! I could hardly understand him

[@salyluz6535]

Captions are available whenever you want them if you just tap the gear and look at the options available there. No need to insult people because your brain is not flexible.

[@PuuroLehma]

And that ear cutting is bit brutal

[@son_60han]

Just why he do that to the young sapling 0:32 2:06 holy 😢 it's too cruel

[@shahpen3814]

EU is boycotting Malaysia & Indonesia's oil palm because it says oil palm companies are destroying the rainforests. But look at what they are doing to their own forests.

[@KangaRuude]

I need the artists name and contact From the song in the beginning

[@wulfhafer66]

Save this, and your name and memory will be treasured by humans who survive and wish to remember simple Happiness. Prime wild land!!! Beyond $ values.. and Laplanders might enjoy forever if climate holds..

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

Good doing green peace activities in Europe countries & other places... I hope their legitimate ,blessed activities are launching far from hiding political aiming & political pressures... There's activities involving expansion to( USA, China, Russia, India)

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

A wonderful documentary coverage video about prime eval forests preserving ( forests are earth 🌎 lunches 🫁) video showing green peace thankfulness activities ... good luck, DW documentary channels 🙏

[@salyluz6535]

Forests are the Lungs of the Earth.

[@Avanguard4128]

Watching this documentary makes me wonder; _Should I stop purchasing items of furniture manufactured by IKEA?_

[@salyluz6535]

I know many people who have come to that conclusion personally, who have begun shopping for furniture more at local auctions, thrift and antique stores in order to recycle already made furniture. There are other local options such as Freecycle, where people can give away furniture and other household items rather than sending it to the dump.

[@Leo-gt1bx]

​@@salyluz6535 That is mostly due to financial reasons

[@GermanMic]

Who would've thought freedom could turn out to be homeless, restricted to sectors & desperately dependent on food rations!!!? 🤔 RIP Nature & Balance! Yall ready for geotech & weather whip, we must start caring for earth NOW, or !!! Love&blessings

[@absoluteeverything1980]

that why hemp production should be restored

[@Leo-gt1bx]

You can't build apartment blocks with hemp

[@isakfalk-eliasson1675]

Good documentary. But I'm sceptical to this DW statement: "These could be left untouched. After all, there is enough timber elsewhere in northern Europe", 3 min in. Where's that timber located? In Sweden, at least, increasingly younger forests are being cut - indicating an impossibility to cut at a stable age - and forest growth in general is declining - perhaps due to climate change.

[@ottitudes1991]

2:52 as a lady "who put those earrings in" i can confirm that shit hurt, lets not be ignorant just because we're lazy to think

[@oleblack423]

I really like norden accents

[@rubelchowdhury2752]

❣️❣️❣️🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩

[@thesilentone4024]

Cities should use thirsty concrete to reduce flooding and sand mining helping you and ecosystems. Whats thirsty concrete well look it up its a 1 to 2 minute video and it tells you how it works. Yes you can drive on it so we should replace are roads with it.

[@Kurdedunaysiri]

Why rich people are always that hungry. Stop destroying the nature and indigenous peoples’ life.

[@anthonymorales842]

The reindeer herders wore their finest cloak

[@aikidomatrix1]

a millennial forest turned to...paper. (If that is not ignorance from the human race...I do not know what it is).

[@svenwiberg2563]

We killing everything. And just for greed

[@omyhaby1912]

Money vs Nature Nature will always Win!

[@cristinataliani5619]

Confront Rampant Industrialization

[@Skogen594]

14:00 look into his eyes. money and greed.

[@Duckofstalker]

Grand Grand Grand fater cat what yousaid?

[@retrieveri]

75 % of Finland's ground area is forests. Germany and other EU countries should start planting trees to get to the same percentage. Isn't it so that EU should have the same rules for every country? Or is it so that Germany and France dictate what the other countries should do?

[@dotdashdotdash]

Germany is converting much land into new housing for nor(th African, Middle Eastern & Asian migrants)

[@thewokefindergeneral7631]

Replies are muted

[@patricksierhuis4343]

Maybe it's possible with vertical farming

[@edmondantes4338]

Finland is extremely sparsely populated. It seems reasonable to me that the less populated countries be expected to preserve a larger percentage of their nature.

[@retrieveri]

@@edmondantes4338 Or better yet, countries with more people per km2 should by law take Chinese "one child model" so that they can preserve more nature.

[@joshhton1035]

But what about the mammoths that they would be bringing back to clear a lot of these forests to fight climate change? Why save these trees if they simultaneously want to do the exact same thing in the near future?

[@Quiddiey]

The documentary is probably more an argument about biodiversity and Sami land rights than climate change. I think the idea about bringing mammoths back is to keep permafrost frozen by having them make forests into arctic grasslands (frozen permafrost prevents lots of methane being released). But I dunno if thats applicable to places like Finland/Sweden that don't have that much permafrost, unlike northern Russia/Canada. And bringing back mammoths seems pretty far fetched, at least in any near term future to have any noticeable impact.

[@valterjohansson5701]

There is very much misinformation in this video. Coming from a forestry student.

[@sherirobinson6867]

This makes me want to cry.

[@petermaclean9326]

So, other than personal feelings, why should this particular forest be saved?

[@shari9721]

Do you think that if you cut down 100 trees that are 50-100 yrs old and mature and you plant 100 little seedlings that you have replaced what you cut, that there is no damage and no effect on anything from you cutting? Those seedlings don't put out the same amount of oxygen, they don't give the same amount of shade or shelter for wildlife, they don't have the same amount of root structure to keep the soil from being washed away, there is nowhere for birds to build nests or for numerous other animals. Those are just a few of the damages and effects I mentioned. Logging needs to be properly and sustainably managed.

[@visitwave]

And thyroid patients can take?

[@dachakat2118]

Eric bramdsma...Dutch....Ikea also Dutxh now...believe me inly money is on there minds....

[@big1dog23]

Saving large swaths of old growth boreal forests is a worthy end in itself, but to ignore over grazing and overconcentration of livestock seems myopic and naïve. The Tragedy of the Commons. Tell us the natural carrying capacity of this marginal grazing land? What are the water quality impacts of all these reindeer? The ranchers are subsidized capitalists too. From the video shown this is nothing like sustained yield grazing or saving an ancient way of life, especially with the use of helicopters, super sized snowmobiles, motorcycles and winter feeding. These forests would be much healthier if the harvesters of all kind ease up. A bit like the US West and all the making s for a Kevin Costner movie.

[@demil3618]

No idea who the narrator is but I assume it’s a professional speaker. A primeval forests /PRIMEVAL forests/ is /Primeval FORESTS/. a reindeer herder is a /REINDEER herder/, not a /reindeer HERDER/- what else „reindeer“ would he be in context?

[@AlexandraBryngelsson]

It's a german channel, maybe you can understand their english is not 100 percent perfect.

[@Lasselucidora]

Could be a reindeer LOVEMAKER.

[@barbaraseymour3437]

You’re being petty and pedantic. We understood what was meant in this serious documentary by the excellent DW.

[@demil3618]

@@barbaraseymour3437 It was good but this non-semantic pronunciation is too wide-spread to ignore it. It spoils the docu!

[@demil3618]

@@Lasselucidora Hmm, yes you never know with those nordic guys…

[@Skogen594]

These forestry machines should be banned. And the people working for the skogs industry are my enemy.

[@fabiodeoliveiraribeiro1602]

The sad truth is that the criminal exploitation of these forests in Northern Europe is child's play compared to the immense devastation caused by the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil under the Jair Bolsonaro government with the support of the Brazilian Army. However, European support for the Lula government still seems to be very faltering despite his commitment to stop the advance of agribusiness into the forest and illegal mining on indigenous lands in Brazil.

[@Leo-gt1bx]

Well what do you expect supply and demand. With the high influx of people into western countries there needs to be wood these are corporations.

[@Skogen594]

Sweden is worse than Brazil

[@patrickfitzgerald2861]

The wealthy Swedish government has the means to save these forests. They are engaging in evil if they do not . . . full stop.

[@dotdashdotdash]

The same Swedish government that is destroying Viking era monuments & artifacts and saying that there is no native Swedish culture because it all came from "outside Sweden"

[@vicooo1498]

@@dotdashdotdash LoOk At Me So OpPrEsSeD!!11!!!1

[@TheMrCougarful]

A: No. There are exactly zero forests will be saved anywhere.

[@ivan55599]

l've always wondered, that how it can be sustainable to herd animals with snowmobiles using fossil fuels?

[@tomhofsteede7864]

not really another way to get around during winter here

[@vicooo1498]

what, do you expect indigenous people to be savages who walk on skis and hunt with bow and arrow?

[@marinazonis]

I just can't get past the fact the farmer cut a piece of that poor baby's ear without anesthesia, and then compared it to women having their ears pierced.

[@hairyyeti21]

get a grip

[@adamandsteve13]

Unfortunately it is considered that animals don't feel pain. We do similar and even worse things to farm animals all the time - like branding, cutting ears, cutting tails, removing horns, and castrating!

[@dachakat2118]

And whole modle europe wants woodem spoons , strings , cups, bags ect.ect...So called "good for nature"😢😢😢 plastic you can recicle ...a tree tskes years and years to grow back....

[@gothicpagan.666]

Stop buying news papers and magazines, end of problem

[@sammelisalonen14]

Two things you cannot be in the same time; an environmentalist and an overgrazing reindeer herder.

[@PFG666]

Please provide proof of 'overgrazing' that is not a direct effect of industry encroaching on the land.

[@solarlight10]

"We cant feed these reindeer naturally anymore"... Meanwhile in the background you see an unnatural amount of reindeer huddled in a small area, which i'm very doubtful can be fed without migrating over long distances or having supplemental food in any condition. World's filled with hypocrites, lumber business is trying to make money so are you apparently.

[@shari9721]

Cutting down old growth forests to make toilet paper and replanting the same amount of seedlings and thinking everything is fine, that nothing has been lost or taken, that there has been no damage done and there will be no effects is sheer stupidity.

[@salyluz6535]

@solarlight... An ‘unnatural amount of reindeer!!!’ What an ignorant statement!! Obviously you have no idea about the massive size of naturally migrating herds of herbivores historically, before humans interfered! Can you comprehend the idea of a herd so large it takes several days to pass you by? Meditate on that, perhaps it will give you a small idea how large the herds were that covered the Arctic areas, before man interfered! Such Reindeer/Caribou herds can still be found naturally and unmanaged in a few protected areas, but because of over hunting, human encroachment and destruction of their historic grazing areas on both ends of migratory ranges, these naturally occurring migratory herds have been reduced to UNNATURALLY LOW levels in most parts of the world! Those herds that remain anywhere near original numbers, are the ones now managed by humans such as the Sami.

[@solarlight10]

​@@salyluz6535 I don't deny there are natural herds that get to be very large but I'm assuming this for-profit farmer is keeping them close to his home, unless I'm wrong and he travels hundreds of miles with this herd to feed them, but I highly doubt it. He's basically managing a feed lot at this point which carries its own environmental problems

[@Leo-gt1bx]

​@@shari9721 You are welcome to not use it

[@AnyoneCanSee]

This is a fantastic video. They should warn the loggers first and then if they continue, sabotage their machines. Set fire to them. Just keep attacking them. I don't support protesters attacking art. This makes me incredibly angry as our art is one of the great achievements of our culture and to attack great works of art that are available free to the general public in galleries is an unforgivable attack on humanity. It is completely the wrong target. All that will happen is that we will lose access to great art but also why attack humanity's greatest achievements? I am aware they are not destroying them but if you set a precedent of attacking art then different groups will attack and destroy artworks. If we can't protect our art then I'm fine with humanity dying out. This may seem extreme but without culture, we are nothing but meat machines.

[@imhoman8423]

no sorry

[@Rautaa]

there is not a thing called swedish lapland