The question whether forest fuel extraction will affect biodiversity is ultimately a question of whether there will be species extinctions due to this practice. Quantitative predictions i.e. about how much habitat loss various species can tolerate, therefore require knowledge about processes that work over hundreds of square kilometres and over several years. Therefore, they are almost impossible to make. Instead, qualitative recommendations about which types of habitats or wood types that have the most threatened fauna and flora can be made based on information about landscape history and microhabitat associations of red-listed species. For Sweden a general conclusion for forest fuel extraction based mainly on saproxylic beetles is that coniferous wood can be harvested as forest fuel to a rather large extent, whereas deciduous tree species, and especially southern deciduous species and aspen, should be retained to a larger degree. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.