Switzerland makes environmental move against stone gardens

There is a growing trend for gardens covered in paving stones or gravel, but they restrict biodiversity and create heat islands. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally

The Swiss government wants to discourage a growing trend for stone or gravel gardens, and experts agree they do not help the environment, reports Swiss public broadcaster RTS.

These stone gardens are easier to maintain than a conventional garden, but they reduce biodiversity and create heat islands. University of Neuchâtel biology professor Edward Mitchell told RTSExternal link in an interview on Friday that covering gardens in paving stones or gravel will not change the overall climate. “However, it does have an impact on the climate of the city and on the feeling of heat experienced during episodes of high temperatures and drought in summer,” he explains. “The more concrete the environment is, the less climate regulation can be achieved through soil water and vegetation.”

These areas increased by 21% between 2018 and 2021, reaching a total area of about 11 km2, according to a recent reportExternal link by the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), which makes three recommendations on how to combat the trend.

The first one is for binding rules at the level of the municipalities so that stone gardens would be subject to building permits. The federal government also supports the idea of financial aid to develop green spaces in cities. Finally, the report recommends awareness-raising campaigns among the authorities and the population.

Some municipalities have already acted, RTS reports. For example, Langendorf in the canton of Solothurn has banned all new stone gardens since 2020, while projects to regulate these areas are also under discussion in several French-speaking cantons.

At the World Biodiversity Forum in 2022, we met scientists looking more closely at the Swiss landscape. One of them was Bronwyn Price of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL):