Government clears way for timber industry
The Swiss environment agency has published a blueprint for future management of the country’s forests, with fewer restrictions on timber companies.
The programme, which has been challenged by environmentalists, is expected to cost the federal and local authorities around SFr2.7 billion ($2.2 billion) over the next decade.
The policy envisions cutting government subsidies and scaling back red tape for private timber firms to help them increase output.
Philippe Roch, director of the environment agency, said he favoured “a minimum of state intervention” while the industry was trying to pull out of its current crisis.
Under the plans published on Monday, the government would only subsidise forestry schemes which act as protection against avalanches, as well as those that maintain a wide variety of plant and animal life.
However, the environment agency said it would no longer subsidise timber production and it called on the industry to become more efficient.
Short-sighted
A number of Swiss-based environmental organisations, including the WWF, have recognised the need for an overhaul of Swiss forestry policy. But they criticised the proposals as “short-sighted”.
They said the government was simply serving the interests of forestry industry at the expense of sustainable forest management policies.
“Switzerland’s forestry industry is now really at a crossroads, but the new policies published today indicate that it is heading down a dead-end street,” said Damian Oettli, forestry expert at the WWF.
Oettli said Monday’s announcement marked a significant shift in forestry policy – the first since 1991.
The agency’s proposals – which still need to be discussed by cabinet and parliament – would allow the federal authorities to reduce annual subsidies by 25 per cent or SFr30 million a year.
swissinfo
The new forestry programme would cost some SFr2.7 billion until 2015.
About SFr95 million of this would come from the Swiss environmental agency.
Switzerland is the first country to have forestry laws, which first came into effect at the end of the 19th century.
72 per cent of Swiss forests are owned by the government.
Woods and forests cover 30 per cent of Switzerland.
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