Forest Protection and Municipal Protection Initiative Submitted

As the Federal Chancellery announces, 107,693 signatures are valid for the Forest Protection Initiative, and 106,010 for the Municipal Protection Initiative.

The Swiss people will therefore be able to vote on these matters in two to three years.

Protecting threatened forests

The Forest Protection Initiative demands that no wind turbines may be built in or at the edge of forests. Deforestation for wind turbines is to be prohibited in order to protect Swiss forests. Under the pretext of climate protection, large-scale clearances are currently being carried out for numerous wind turbines. In the canton of Zurich alone, around 100 wind turbines are planned, almost all of them in valuable forests. For each wind turbine, an area of forest the size of a football pitch would have to be destroyed.

Safeguarding direct democracy

The Municipal Protection Initiative demands that all municipalities affected by wind farms be able to vote on them. In order to push through the construction of wind turbines against the will of the affected population, several cantons have abolished municipalities' right to have a say, under the pretext of “procedural acceleration.”

Abandoning 150 years of forest protection? Undermining municipal autonomy?

The concerns regarding the protection of forests and democracy are, in Switzerland, actually a matter of course:

Since 1872, deforestation has been prohibited in Switzerland . Exceptions are granted only very restrictively. The corresponding law (today: the Forest Act) was the very first nature conservation law in Switzerland. It ensured that the resource of forests was not overexploited. With the increasing urban sprawl and concreting over of our country, the forest has become the most important retreat for animals and plants. In addition, many people seek recreation in the forest.

The right of municipalities to have a say has until now been a matter of course throughout the country. However, in order to push through the expansion of wind power, this right to participation is increasingly being abolished. In Schaffhausen, Lucerne and St. Gallen, the population no longer has any say. In the canton of Zurich, its abolition is planned. The cantonal director of construction there considers the population's right to have a say “questionable from a democratic perspective.”

Preserving and protecting Swiss values

The protection initiatives for Swiss forests and the right of municipalities to have a say aim to safeguard the proven protection of forests and nature as well as the time-tested direct democracy for another 150 years to come. It is essential to protect the key pillars of Switzerland: an intact landscape, diverse biodiversity and our globally unique democracy!

Further articles

• Wildlife in Switzerland is contaminated with plastic
• Environmental impacts of wind turbines: The dangers of PFAS for wildlife
• Study on the influence of wind turbines on the weather
• Offshore wind farms could pose significant risks to the ecosystem, the economy and human health
• The effects of wind farms on soil moisture and local climate
• Wind turbines cause exactly what they were meant to prevent
• Solar module waste: The disposal problem
• The impact of wind turbines on wildlife and the debate around clean energy
• “Two new large nuclear power plants are enough for Switzerland”
• Wind power and marine fauna: No harmonious coexistence
• Scandalous secret contracts between wind energy promoters and Bernese municipalities