Bounties, Mafias, and the Climate Cost of IKEA’s Fast Furniture

Burnelius and her colleagues at Protect the Forest (Skydda Skogen) say they asked IKEA many times to show their suppliers, but to no avail. Burnelius believes the lack of supply chain transparency is deliberate. To address this, Burnelius’ colleague, Jon Andersson, created the first comprehensive, open-access database that maps forests throughout Sweden. Their monitoring recently revealed that 45,000 hectares have been approved for logging in high conservation value forests and irreplaceable primary forests.

I traveled with Burnelius to northern Sweden, past an unrelenting sea of tree plantations and clear cuts, where we documented Swedish forestry practices and several FSC-certified sites on the ground. We drove 6 hours from Umea to Jokkmokk, just north of the Arctic Circle on Sápmi lands, to meet with her friend Jannie, a Sámi reindeer herder. Sámi people claim their forests, which are integral to reindeer herds, are being destroyed by clear-cut logging, and that timber is likely in the IKEA supply chain.

Near Jokkmokk, a few patches of intact forests remain. Tufts of pistachio-colored lichen blanket the forest floor, and gauzy, black lichen drape the tree branches—food for the reindeer, which have followed the migration routes of their ancestors for generations. For nearly 2,000 years, the lives of the Sámi and the reindeer have been intertwined. The reindeer have provided the Sámi with food, clothing, tools, and shelter, all vital in the harsh Arctic environment, while also balancing the Arctic ecosystem. Reindeer herding remains a vital economic, cultural, and ecological practice. But forest loss could threaten it all.

Sámi herders need to put the reindeer inside corrals with supplementary feed because the “[tree] plantations are suffocating the lichen,” said Jannie. The tightly packed monocultures that have replaced primary forests don’t let in enough light to sustain lichens. A 2016 study found that 71% of Swedish forests with abundant lichen growth had disappeared in the six decades prior. Last winter, Jannie traveled 12 hours by car to gather enough lichen for the reindeer. 

Jannie’s elders told her that when industrial-scale deforestation began in Sweden, the Sámi had abundant lands and lichen, so they were happy to share with the forestry companies. But now, she said, “we have nothing left to give here. They are looking at our empty wallets and want the entire wallet as well.”