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Water and wolves high on environmental agenda

The Swiss Environment Office has set its priorities for 2011, including efforts to revitalise lakes and rivers and develop a strategy on how to reduce the wolf’s protected status.

At a news conference on Wednesday, environment chief Bruno Oberle said his office would also focus on biodiversity and climate change policy, improvements to the early warning system for natural disasters and the International Year of Forests.




The Environment Office has declared as a goal, for example, the protection of a minimum area for all lakes and rivers in the country and a reduction of the negative impact on waterways from hydroelectric plants.

In the case of the wolf, the governmental agency will attempt to put the issue of the animal’s protected status on the agenda of the standing committee of the Bern Convention. The convention is a binding international legal instrument on wildlife and nature conservation.

The Swiss parliament approved last year a motion for Switzerland to call for the section of the treaty addressing the wolf’s protection to be watered down, due to the large number of sheep killed by wolves in the country over the past few years.

Also at the news conference, the Environment Office said the results of surveys showed wide acceptance among the public of eco-labels indicating energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions.

Another study commissioned by the office recommends the introduction of labels that reveal the total environmental impact of consumer goods from the extraction of raw materials, to the manufacturing process and transport.

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR