Climate change exerts an increasingly strong influence on Swiss forest ecosystems. Changes in site conditions and the increased risk of disturbances (droughts, windthrow, storms) have a considerable negative impact on the silvicultural potential of forests. However, these effects can be mitigated...

This article presents three new products from the Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI), which help make timber harvesting more efficient and optimize forest development. The first product is a model for deriving the most economical timber harvesting process on each NFI sample area. For this...

Network governance may strike a balance between democratic participation (input-legitimacy) and efficiency and effectiveness (output-legitimacy) of policy processes and thus can enhance the acceptance of policy reforms. This article aims at an appraisal of network governance in Swiss forest policy...

Forest ecosystems provide multiple services. In mountainous regions, protection against gravitational hazards is of particular importance. By preventing soil erosion and functioning as natural barriers and buffers, forests protect the population and infrastructure against avalanches and rock falls. ...

The term 'bioeconomy' stands for an economy that primarily relies on renewable biotic resources and thus supports the vision of a low carbon society. The respective 'bioeconomy strategies' bear high conflict potential as they, sometimes unintentionally, rely on forest-land or wood as a resource,...

The quantification of forests available for wood supply (FAWS) is essential for decision-making with regard to the maintenance and enhancement of forest resources and their contribution to the global carbon cycle. The provision of harmonized forest statistics is necessary for the development of ...

Space for recreation is an important service provided by forests close to urban and rural areas alike. Mountain biking, as one recreational activity, is increasingly becoming widespread, which can lead to challenging trade-off situations, as some benefits from forests come at the cost of another ...

Ecological economists have emphasized the study of commodification (i.e., the development of market-based exchange and valuation) rather than decommodification processes (i.e., the degree of immunization from market dependency). This is surprising given the fact that large-scale decommodification...

Among the different functions forests offer, recreation is increasing in importance to a growing global population. This is at a time when multifunctional forest management can no longer cover its costs solely from the revenue from wood production. The governance of forest recreation is assumed to...

Support for forestry in Switzerland under the new system of fiscal equalization and division of tasks between the Confederation and the cantons (NFE) has now entered its third phase. Program agreements between Confederation and cantons have improved implementation. The operational scope of action...