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> Forest Report 2015 Condition and Use of Swiss Forests FOEN / WSL 2015
6.1 Forest owners
Matthias Kläy
> Ownership and management of the forest in Switzerland is very fragmented.
> Around 70 per cent of the Swiss forest is publicly owned, while 30 per cent is in private hands.
> There are approximately 240,000 private forest owners. Each of them owns, on average, about 1.4 hectares of forest, covering an area approximately the size of two football fields.
> The number of forest owners and the types of ownership have hardly changed since 2005.
> The extensive fragmentation of the Swiss forest makes managing it laborious and costly. Through increased co-operation and improved management methods, however, it can be made more cost-effective
and efficient.
Forest owners
Unlike the forest in many other countries, the Swiss forest is legally accessible to everyone. Many people therefore forget that every patch of forest belongs to someone. Indeed, the for- est has many owners, with around 250,000 in total sharing the Swiss forest. Most of the forest owners – 97 per cent to be pre- cise – are private individuals. The majority own only a small patch of forest much less than 50 hectares in area, with an average size of only 1.42 hectares. The publicly owned forest is much less fragmented. Approximately 3,300 public forest owners manage 70 per cent of the entire forest area and are responsible for 64 per cent of all wood used. However, there are large regional differences. In Canton Lucerne, 70 per cent of the forest is in private hands, whereas in Canton Valais it is only 9 per cent.
In Switzerland, most of the public forest areas belong to the local governments: 40 per cent to the municipalities and 31 per cent to the local citizens’ communities. A further 11 per cent is owned by corporations and co-operatives, and a total of 7 per cent belongs to the federal state and the cantons (Fig. 6.1.1). Forest ownership has a tradition, and the num- ber of forest owners and the types of ownership has hardly changed in recent years. Since a large part of the Swiss forest is publicly owned, many people think that it is not managed for profit, but rather for the public good. But this can only be true for those forest owners who charge and collect taxes, i.e.
the federal government, cantons and local municipalities, who together only own about 50 per cent of the public sector forest.
This means that a large part of the forest is managed according to economic market criteria, whereby the owners have to be able to cover their costs.
Management
The Swiss forest is managed by public forest enterprises, specialised forestry service entrepreneurs and private forest owners. However, some owners do not use their forests and leave them to develop naturally. The forest enterprises man- age about 70 per cent of the forest area in Switzerland and are supported by forestry service entrepreneurs. The extreme fragmentation of the Swiss forest is not only reflected in the forest ownership, but also in the forest enterprises. More than half of the enterprises manage together less than 10 per cent
Fig. 6.1.1 Public forest areas in Switzerland in hectares and per- centages according to owner type. Source: FSO and FOEN 2012
40 %
31 % 11 %
6 % 1 % 11 %
Local municipalities (351,039 ha) Local citizens’ communities (278,321 ha) Corporations, co-operatives (101,975 ha) Cantons (50,713 ha)
Federal government (8,759 ha) Other, mixed, public forest areas (93,495 ha) Total (884,302 ha)
> 6 Social Economy 6.1 Forest owners 101
of the productive forest area, while a few large enterprises manage extensive parts of it (Fig. 6.1.2).
The economic pressure on forest enterprises has in- creased in the past few years, partly because the world trading prices for wood have fallen while at the same time the pressure on public administrations to save has risen. The deterioration of the economic situation has meant that economically via- ble management has become more important and there is a greater need for efficient working methods. Since 2004, many forest owners have therefore joined forces and formed larger management units or enterprises. A glance at the develop-
ment in the number of forest enterprises shows that this has decreased by about 20 per cent since 2004 (Table 6.1.1). The largest decline is in the number of small forest enterprises of up to 50 hectares, while the number of large enterprises with a size of 1,000 hectares and more has increased slightly.
Specialized forestry service entrepreneurs serve as important partners in the use of the forests. They work under contract to forest enterprises, felling the wood and performing other forest tasks. Their modern equipment and methods and their specialist knowledge help to make forest management more efficient and economically viable. Co-operation between for- est owners and external management enterprises is the key to improving forestry’s economic performance.
Table 6.1.1
Number of forest enterprises according to size (excluding private forest enterprises <50 ha) for the period 2004–2012.
Source: FSO and FOEN 2013
Size of the forest enterprises 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Change
2004 to 2012
<50 ha 1,236 1,201 1,178 1,101 1,026 999 980 937 912 –324
51–100 ha 464 455 446 436 412 399 389 371 370 –94
101–200 ha 435 426 421 412 406 383 381 352 355 –80
201–500 ha 467 454 444 442 435 423 419 374 368 –99
501–1,000 ha 262 264 267 261 252 251 247 242 242 –20
1,001–5,000 ha 174 174 175 178 190 188 192 192 193 19
>5,000 ha 2 2 2 3 4 5 5 7 7 5
Total 3,040 2,976 2,933 2,833 2,725 2,648 2,613 2,475 2,447 –593
Development in absolute numbers –64 –43 –100 –108 –77 –35 –138 –28
Development as a percentage –2.1 –1.4 –3.4 –3.8 –2.8 –1.3 –5.3 –1.1 –19.5
Fig. 6.1.2 Distribution of the forest enterprises according to their size and their proportion of the forest area in 2011.
Source: FSO and FOEN 2012
Per cent
0 10 20 30 40
5 15 25 35 45 50
0–50 ha
51–100 ha
101–200 ha
201–500 ha
501–1,000 ha
>1,000 ha Percentage of the total number of enterprises
Percentage of the productive forest area
