Sweden

Sweden, the 3rd largest country in the EU, with a terrestrial area of close to 450 000 km² and a marine area over 155 000 km². Occupying the eastern part of the Scandinavian peninsula, it has a long coastline, the border with Norway is mountainous, and has a number of large lakes. It is bordered by 2 other countries. The highest point is Kebnekaise at 2 104m. Sweden has a population of 10.2 million people and a population density of 25 people per km².

Protected areas

There are a total of   protected areas in Sweden,   Natura 2000 sites -   Special Protection Areas (Birds Directive) and   Sites of Community Importance (Habitat Directive) - as well as   sites designated under national laws.

The average size of protected areas in Europe is lower compared to other regions of the world. This largely reflects the high degree of fragmentation of the land in Europe due to urbanisation, infrastructure and general intensification of land use. At a EU level 50% of protected areas have an area of less than 1 km². The 10 largest marine sites account for 68% of the marine area, while the 10 largest land sites account for 41% of the land area covered by protected areas

Natura 2000 sites in Sweden cover   species and   habitats from the nature directives. The number of species and habitats protected in each site varies depending on the location of the site, the biodiversity in the region, the designation being used, and the features the site is being created to protect. For   sites there is only 1 feature being protected with   sites having more than 20 features.

Protected species

Species protected in Sweden under EU law are protected under the Habitats Directive and under the Birds Directive. The Habitats Directive has a total of 2 500 species on its list, the Birds Directive has a total of 500 species of wild birds protected.

Conservation status: Habitats Directive

 % of species are considered to be Good

 % of species are considered to be Poor

 % of species are considered to be Bad

 % of species are considered to be Unknown

Conservation Status by Taxa

Protected species composition by Taxa

Protected habitats

Habitats protected in Sweden under EU law are protected under the Habitats Directive. The Habitats Directive has a total of 233 habitats on its list.

  habitats protected under EU law in Sweden.

Conservation status: Habitats Directive

 % of habitats are considered to be Good

 % of habitats are considered to be Poor

 % of habitats are considered to be Bad

 % of habitats are considered to be Unknown

Conservation Status by Group

Habitat composition by Group

Ecosystems

Policy

MAES in Sweden:

Sweden we will incorporate our ES assessments within the regional action plans for Green Infrastructure. We are now in the initial phase of implementing the recently accepted government bill: A Swedish strategy for biodiversity and ecosystem services.

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Green infrastructure in Sweden:

Environmental, climate and energy policy in Sweden is under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy, coordinated and implemented through different government agencies. Several of these government agencies are involved in the Swedish development of Green Infrastructure (GI), most notably the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Naturvårdsverket), but also, for instance, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) (Havs- och Vattenmyndigheten), the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket), the Swedish Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket) and the Swedish Forest Agency (Skogsstyrelsen).

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National Biodiversity strategy for Sweden:

To report on progress to the EU 2020 biodiversity strategy, the European Commission extracted relevant information from the EU Member States’ 5^th national reports to the CBD. Of the 5 countries which had not finalized their national reports at the time of the synthesis (26^th of August 2015), Greece, Malta, Portugal and Lithuania provided information to be included in the synthesis.

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