Biodiversity: NGOs criticise ‘bottom of the class’ Switzerland

Switzerland has some beautiful scenery, but not all of it is a model of biodiversity. © Keystone / Gabriel Monnet

Switzerland has fallen behind in its protection of animals and plants over the past decade, carrying out just 1.4% of its international obligations, nature organisations have said.

NGOs BirdLife and Pro Natura said on Wednesday that Switzerland is bottom of the class among signatories of the Council of Europe’s 1979 “Bern Convention” on the conservation of wildlife and natural habitats.

Ten years ago, the convention notably decided on the creation of a Europe-wide network of protected areas, or “Emerald” zones. At the time, 37 such zones were named in Switzerland, while the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) pledged to determine others in the future, and to “guarantee the protection of species and natural areas in Switzerland”.

The two NGOs, however, complain that only a few species – and no habitat – is covered by the 37 sites, while further emerald sites in Switzerland have simply not been named, despite a 2020 deadline to make progress.

Over the past two years, no Swiss effort has been visible to protect the 140 animal and plant species and 43 habitats identified at the European level, the NGOs say. They add that the responsibility has simply been passed by the government to the 26 cantons.

They say that Switzerland nevertheless still has a chance to make up ground: by 2030, it must not only have set up the “Emerald” network, it must also have put in place management plans for the zones. If the country does not move quickly, it will miss this new commitment and put its own endangered species and habitats at even greater risk, the NGOs warn.

Agriculture or forestry is authorized in “Emerald” sites, provided they do not represent a threat to the protection goals, said Birdlife and Pro Natura.

Environment office response

For its part, the FOEV told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Wednesday that Switzerland takes biodiversity extremely seriously. It pointed specifically to a “politically feasible” government proposal that recently came in response to a biodiversity initiative handed in by campaigners in 2020. In its proposal, the government has offered to place some CHF1 billion new funding to preserve and promote biodiversity over the next decade, the FOEV said.