Governance approaches in Swiss forest biodiversity policy: Do they really work?

New forms of governance are detected in the Swiss forest reserve policy, a policy in the field of forest biodiversity, and they have helped its implementation. A survey on the implementation status of the Swiss forest reserve concept in the cantons shows that (1) governance elements are clearly favored over traditional command-and-control regulations, (2) 6.6% of the Swiss forest area is delimited forest reserves, (3) large forest reserves are still missing in most of the cantons. Impeding factors can be a lack of conviction of the forest owners, a complicated ownership structure or the weak financial condition of a canton. Improvements may be achieved by increasing consultation and financial incentives or through a purchase of ecologically valuable areas by the Confederation and the cantons.Until now, the Swiss forest reserve policy lacks integration with interacting policies such as climate policy. Climate change could promote forest reserves as sinks for carbon dioxide. Yet this could be counteracted by the support of timber as renewable energy. Integration between forest reserve policy and interacting policies needs to be strengthened, especially with respect to the biodiversity policy (national biodiversity strategy; Convention on Biological Diversity).

► We did a survey on the implementation status of the Swiss forest reserve concept.
► Governance elements are clearly favored over command-and-control regulations.
► 6.6% of the Swiss forest area is delimited forest reserves.
► Large forest reserves are still missing in most of the cantons.
► Swiss forest biodiversity policy has not yet been linked to climate change.