15. Life on land

The challenge is to strike a balance between conserving and enhancing biodiversity and its ecosystems while allowing the use of natural resources needed for a well-functioning society. Swedish challenges include developing sustainable forestry, reducing biodiversity loss, developing sustainable food production, preventing the spread of invasive species and increasing the restoration of wetlands. Ecosystems and biodiversity also provide a resilience that allows nature to withstand and cope with sudden changes, protecting our society in the event of, for example, floods and heatwaves (Glokala Sverige n.d.).

The goal in a local context

For the City of Malmö, Goal 15 is about promoting sustainable land use to enhance and halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystems. The city decides on land and water areas and can thus conserve, manage and restore valuable natural environments, including non-urban environments outside the city, such as wetlands, agricultural land, forests and pastures, and urban environments, such as urban greenery, tree conservation, land claims and surface water management.

What it looks like in Malmö

Green spaces and land use

In Malmö, 4.8 per cent of the municipality's land and water area is protected as nature reserves. The City of Malmö has been working for several years to establish more nature reserves in the municipality. Nature reserves are established by the County Administrative Board and municipalities under the Environmental Code. An interim target at national level was to protect at least 20 per cent of Sweden's land and freshwater areas by 2020. However, this target was not achieved as only 15 per cent was formally protected in December 2020. The national interim target for marine areas was 10 per cent in the same year and this target was achieved, as 12 per cent of Sweden's marine areas were protected in December 2020 (Miljöbarometern, n.d.). The City of Malmö's goal, which is set out in the City of Malmö's environmental programme (Malmö stad, 2021) and in the Nature Conservation Plan for Malmö (Malmö stad, 2023), is for the protected area, both on land and at sea, to increase by 2030 compared with 2020. Since measurements began in 2010, the area with formal protection has increased on both land and water. The area of water with formal protection has remained at roughly the same level since 2019, as has the area of land with formal protection.

The area of green space is decreasing in Malmö. The reduction is taking place both in the urban centre of Malmö, i.e. the urban green space, and in the municipality as a whole. The reduction is occurring on both municipal and private land, mainly due to exploitation. The amount of green space per inhabitant in Malmö is also decreasing, which is partly due to the high population growth of around 5,000 people per year since 2006 (Miljöbarometern, n.d.).

The canopy cover, i.e. the proportion of the municipality's area covered by tree crowns, is another way of measuring how much greenery the city has. The canopy cover in the Malmö urban area was 13 per cent in 2022, with a large spread between different sub-areas. The City of Malmö's goal is for all residents to see three trees from their homes, live in areas with 30% canopy coverage and have a maximum of 300 metres to the nearest park of a certain size (Malmö stad, 2023a).

Like green space, agricultural land in the municipality is also declining and since 1981 almost a third of agricultural land has disappeared. The concept of agricultural land includes both arable land and pasture. In 2023, the area of arable land did not decrease, but the area of pasture continues to decrease. As the area of agricultural land decreases, not only does the area of arable land disappear, but so do the opportunities for a large number of species to remain in the municipality. In particular, the reduction in grazing land has a major impact on biodiversity, as it provides habitats for a wide range of plant and animal species (Miljöbarometern, n.d.).

Species and their habitats

The environmental objectives in Malmö emphasise that biodiversity in Malmö should increase (Malmö stad, 2021). Some inventories have been carried out and one bright spot that can be seen in these is that significantly more species of lichens and mosses worthy of protection were found in the last three inventories in 2012, 2015 and 2018 compared to previous inventories. Mosses and lichens are good “indicator species”, which means that an increase in the presence and diversity of these species means, among other things, cleaner air and less pollution at the inventoried sites.

Another good indicator species is eelgrass, which lives in the shallow bottom areas along the Malmö coast. Eelgrass beds are important as nurseries, shelters and feeding grounds for many marine organisms in the water, prevent erosion of bottom sediments, play an important role in the nutrient cycle and absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide. The distribution of eelgrass has increased from being found down to a depth of 5.6 metres in 1997 to 7.2 metres in 2023. This means that the availability of light in the sea has improved, which is partly due to a reduction in nutrient salts and thus eutrophication (Miljöbarometern, n.d.). In 2024 and 2025, more inventories will be carried out that will provide more knowledge about biodiversity in Malmö. There are also area descriptions and proposals for action for the areas in Malmö that have the highest nature value (Malmö stad, 2023).

A major threat to biodiversity is the presence of invasive species. In Malmö, a species is defined as invasive when it spreads rapidly, damages biodiversity, destroys recreational values or causes other damage. Examples of common invasive species found in Malmö are buckthorn, wood clematis, giant hogweed and Japanese knotweed. There is currently no indicator that measures the presence of invasive species but work on them is included in the nature conservation plan and measures are taken in ongoing work (Malmö stad, n.d.).

Indicators

15.1 Pastureland, percentage (%)

15.2 Organically farmed arable land, percentage (%)

15.3 Bats, number of species

15.4 Green space within urban areas, percentage (%)

15.5 Lichens and mosses, number of species per site

15.6 Protected land area, percentage (%)

15.7 Protected inland waters, percentage (%)

15.8 Hay meadows, percentage (%)

References

Glokala Sverige (u.å.). Arbetsbok – Agenda 2030. Tillgänglig: https://fn.se/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Arbetsbok_Glokala_Sverige_2021.pdf

Malmö stad (u.å.). Invasiva arter. Tillgänglig: https://malmo.se/Sa-arbetar-vi-med.../Stad-och-trafik/Invasiva-arter.html

Malmö stad (2021). Miljöprogram för Malmö stad 2021 – 2030. Tillgänglig: https://malmo.se/Miljo-och-klimat/Miljo--och-klimatmal.html

Malmö stad (2023). Naturvårdsplan för Malmö 2023–2030. Tillgänglig: https://malmo.se/Aktuellt/Artiklar-Malmo-stad/2023-10-12-Malmo-har-en-ny-naturvardsplan.html

Malmö stad (2023a). Översiktsplan för Malmö. Tillgänglig: https://malmo.se/Stadsutveckling/Sa-utvecklar-vi-staden/Stadsplanering-och-bostader/Oversiktsplanering/Oversiktsplan-for-Malmo-2023.html

Miljöbarometern (u.å.). Miljöbarometern. Tillgänglig: https://miljobarometern.malmo.se/