Federal Act on Forest
(Forest Act, ForA)

¹ This Act is in­ten­ded to:

a.

con­serve the forest in its area and spa­tial dis­tri­bu­tion;

b.

pro­tect the forest as a close-to-nature com­munity;

c.

en­sure that the forest can ful­fil its func­tions, in par­tic­u­lar its pro­tect­ive, so­cial and eco­nom­ic func­tions (forest func­tions);

d.

pro­mote and main­tain the forestry sec­tor.

² It is fur­ther­more in­ten­ded to con­trib­ute to the pro­tec­tion of hu­man life and im­port­ant ma­ter­i­al as­sets against ava­lanches, land­slides, erosion and rock­fall (nat­ur­al events).

¹ Forest is defined as any area that is covered with forest trees or forest shrubs and can ful­fil forest func­tions. Ori­gin, type of use and land re­gistry des­ig­na­tion are not de­cis­ive.

² Also defined as forest are:

a.

graz­ing forests, wooded pas­tures and chest­nut and wal­nut groves;

b.

un­stocked or un­pro­duct­ive areas of a forest plot, such as clear­ings, forest roads and oth­er forest struc­tures and in­stall­a­tions;

c.

plots sub­ject to com­puls­ory af­for­est­a­tion.

³ Isol­ated groups of trees and shrubs, hedges, av­en­ues, gar­dens, planted areas and parks, tree plant­a­tions es­tab­lished on open ground for short-term use and trees and bushes on check dams and in the im­me­di­ate fore­ground of such in­stall­a­tions are not defined as forest.

⁴ With­in the frame­work defined by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the can­tons may de­term­ine the width, area and age, from which an area newly col­on­ised by forest shall be defined as forest, and the width and area from which oth­er wooded areas shall be defined as forest. If the wooded area ful­fils so­cial or pro­tect­ive func­tions, in par­tic­u­lar, the can­ton­al cri­ter­ia are not defin­it­ive.

Forest area should not be re­duced.

De­for­est­a­tion is the per­man­ent or tem­por­ary change of use of forest land.

¹ De­for­est­a­tion is pro­hib­ited.

² In ex­cep­tion­al cases a de­for­est­a­tion per­mit may be gran­ted if the ap­plic­ant proves that there are im­port­ant reas­ons for the de­for­est­a­tion that out­weigh the in­terest of forest con­ser­va­tion and, fur­ther­more, the fol­low­ing con­di­tions are ful­filled:

a.

the pro­posed site must be es­sen­tial to the works for which the de­for­est­a­tion is to be car­ried out;

b.

the works must es­sen­tially ful­fil the spa­tial plan­ning re­quire­ments;

c.

the de­for­est­a­tion does cause any ser­i­ous threat to the en­vir­on­ment.

³ Im­port­ant reas­ons do not in­clude fin­an­cial in­terests, such as the po­ten­tially prof­it­able use of the land or the low-cost ac­quis­i­tion of land for non-forestry pur­poses.

^3bis If the au­thor­it­ies have to de­cide wheth­er to grant per­mis­sion for the con­struc­tion of in­stall­a­tions for the gen­er­a­tion of re­new­able en­er­gies and for en­ergy trans­port­a­tion and dis­tri­bu­tion, when weigh­ing up in­terests the na­tion­al in­terest in con­struct­ing such in­stall­a­tions is to be con­sidered equal to oth­er na­tion­al in­terests.⁴

⁴ The pro­tec­tion of nature and cul­tur­al her­it­age must be taken in­to ac­count.

⁵ A time lim­it shall be set for de­for­est­a­tion per­mits.

¹ Wind en­ergy fa­cil­it­ies and their ac­cess routes in the forest are con­sidered per­man­ently in­stalled if they are in the na­tion­al in­terest and provided the ac­cess routes are ad­equate for the con­struc­tion and op­er­a­tion of the plants. Proof of site per­man­ency must be provided if the wind en­ergy fa­cil­ity is to be erec­ted in one of the fol­low­ing areas:

a.

at a site lis­ted in an in­vent­ory in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 of the Fed­er­al Act of 1 Ju­ly 1966⁶ on the Pro­tec­tion of Nature and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age (NCHA);

b.

in a forest re­serve in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 20 para­graph 4;

c.

in a fed­er­al game re­serve in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 11 of the Hunt­ing Act of 20 June 1986⁷.

² In the case of wind en­ergy fa­cil­it­ies not loc­ated at a site that falls un­der Art­icle 5 NCHA, in­terests shall be weighed in ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icle 3 NCHA.

¹ Ex­cep­tion­al per­mits are gran­ted by:

a.

the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies, if they are com­pet­ent to de­cide on the con­struc­tion or al­ter­a­tion of works, for which de­for­est­a­tion is to be car­ried out;

b.

the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies, if they de­cide on the con­struc­tion or al­ter­a­tion of works, for which de­for­est­a­tion is to be car­ried out.

² Be­fore the can­ton­al au­thor­ity de­cides on a derog­a­tion, it shall hear the Fed­er­al Of­fice for the En­vir­on­ment⁹ (Fed­er­al Of­fice), if:

a.

the area to be de­for­es­ted ex­ceeds 5000m²; if sev­er­al de­for­est­a­tion ap­plic­a­tions are made for one and the same pro­ject, the total area is de­cis­ive;

b.

the forest to be de­for­es­ted is loc­ated in sev­er­al can­tons.

¹ For all de­for­est­a­tion, com­pens­a­tion in kind must be provided in the same re­gion and with spe­cies that are pre­dom­in­antly suited to the loc­a­tion.

² Meas­ures may be im­ple­men­ted for the be­ne­fit of nature and land­scape con­ser­va­tion in­stead of com­pens­a­tion in kind:

a.

in areas with in­creas­ing forest area;

b.

in oth­er areas by way of ex­cep­tion in or­der to con­serve ar­able land and areas of eco­lo­gic­al or land­scape value.

³ Com­pens­a­tion for de­for­est­a­tion may be dis­pensed with in the case of de­for­est­a­tion:

a.

of areas that have grown in the last 30 years in or­der to re­claim ar­able land;

b.

to guar­an­tee flood pro­tec­tion and to re­hab­il­it­ate wa­ters;

c.

for the pre­ser­va­tion and im­prove­ment of bi­otopes in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 18a and 18b para­graph 1 of the Fed­er­al Act of 1 Ju­ly 1966¹¹ on the Pro­tec­tion of Nature and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age.

⁴ If ar­able land that has been re­claimed in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 3 let­ter is giv­en a dif­fer­ent use with­in 30 years, the com­pens­a­tion for de­for­est­a­tion must be provided ret­ro­spect­ively.

The can­tons shall en­sure that con­sid­er­able be­ne­fits arising from de­for­est­a­tion per­mits that are not covered by Art­icle 5 of the Fed­er­al Act on Spa­tial Plan­ning of 22 June 1979¹³are ad­equately com­pensated for.

¹ Any per­son who can demon­strate a le­git­im­ate in­terest may have the can­ton de­clare wheth­er a plot of land is a forest.

² When en­act­ing and re­vis­ing land-use plans in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Act of 22 June 1979¹⁴ on Spa­tial Plan­ning de­clar­a­tion as forest must be ordered in loc­a­tions:

a.

in which de­vel­op­ment zones bor­der the forest or will bor­der it in the fu­ture;

b.

out­side de­vel­op­ment zones where the can­ton wants to pre­vent an in­crease in forest.¹⁵

³ If a re­quest for de­clar­a­tion as forest is made in as­so­ci­ation with an ap­plic­a­tion for de­for­est­a­tion, re­spons­ib­il­ity is gov­erned by Art­icle 6. The com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity de­cides at the re­quest of the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity.¹⁶

¹ The de­for­est­a­tion per­mit does not ex­empt its hold­er from the ob­lig­a­tion to ob­tain plan­ning per­mis­sion as stip­u­lated in the Spa­tial Plan­ning Act of 22 June 1979¹⁷.

² Should a con­struc­tion pro­ject re­quire both a de­for­est­a­tion per­mit and an ex­cep­tion­al per­mit to build out­side the build­ing zone, the lat­ter may only be gran­ted in agree­ment with the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity as stated in Art­icle 6 of this Act.

The al­loc­a­tion of forest to a zone re­quires a de­for­est­a­tion per­mit.

¹ Forest bound­ar­ies de­clared as such un­der Art­icle 10 para­graph 2 shall be entered in the land-use plans.¹⁹

² New wooded areas out­side these bound­ar­ies are not con­sidered forest.

³ Forest bound­ar­ies may be re­viewed in the forest de­clar­a­tion pro­ced­ure un­der Art­icle 10 if the land-use plans are re­vised and the ac­tu­al cir­cum­stances have changed sub­stan­tially.²⁰

¹ The can­tons en­sure that the forest is ac­cess­ible to the gen­er­al pub­lic.

² Where ne­ces­sary for the con­ser­va­tion of the forest or oth­er pub­lic in­terests, such as the pro­tec­tion of wild flora and fauna, the can­tons shall:

a.

re­strict ac­cess­ib­il­ity to cer­tain forest areas;

b.

sub­ject the sta­ging of ma­jor events in the forest to ob­tain­ing a per­mit.

¹ Forests and forest roads may only be ac­cessed by mo­tor­ised vehicu­lar traffic for forestry pur­poses. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the ex­cep­tions to be made for mil­it­ary and oth­er pub­lic tasks.

² The can­tons may au­thor­ise ac­cess to forest roads for oth­er pur­poses if this does not jeop­ard­ise forest con­ser­va­tion or oth­er mat­ters of pub­lic in­terest.

³ The can­tons provide traffic sig­nals and signs and the ne­ces­sary con­trols. If sig­nals, signs and con­trols are not suf­fi­cient, bar­ri­ers may be in­stalled.

¹ Uses that do not con­sti­tute de­for­est­a­tion as defined in Art­icle 4, but which en­danger or in­ter­fere with the func­tions or man­age­ment of the forest are un­law­ful. Rights of use in such cases shall be re­voked, if ne­ces­sary by com­puls­ory pur­chase. The can­tons shall en­act the ne­ces­sary pro­vi­sions.

² The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies may au­thor­ise such uses for im­port­ant reas­ons sub­ject to cer­tain con­di­tions and re­quire­ments.²¹

¹ Build­ings and in­stall­a­tions are only ad­miss­ible in the vi­cin­ity of the forest if they do not in­ter­fere with its con­ser­va­tion, main­ten­ance and use.

² The can­tons shall spe­cify a suit­able min­im­um dis­tance for build­ings and in­stall­a­tions from the forest edge. They shall take the loc­a­tion and ex­pec­ted stand height in­to con­sid­er­a­tion in the spe­cific­a­tion of this dis­tance.

³ The com­pet­ent au­thor­it­ies may au­thor­ise con­struc­tions at less than the min­im­um dis­tance if im­port­ant reas­ons are giv­en and sub­ject to cer­tain con­di­tions and re­quire­ments.²²

The use of en­vir­on­ment­ally haz­ard­ous sub­stances in the forest is pro­hib­ited. Ex­emp­tions from this pro­vi­sion are reg­u­lated by the en­vir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion le­gis­la­tion.

Where ne­ces­sary for the pro­tec­tion of hu­man life and sig­ni­fic­ant ma­ter­i­al as­sets, the can­tons shall se­cure ava­lanche, land­slide, erosion and rock­fall areas and carry out tor­rent con­trol works in forests.²³ The meas­ures used should be as nat­ur­al as pos­sible.

¹ The forest shall be man­aged in such a way that it can ful­fil its func­tions without in­ter­rup­tion or re­stric­tion (sus­tain­ab­il­ity).

² The can­tons shall en­act plan­ning and man­age­ment reg­u­la­tions; in do­ing this, they shall take in­to ac­count the re­quire­ments of wood sup­ply, close-to-nature sil­vi­cul­ture and the pro­tec­tion of nature and cul­tur­al her­it­age.

³ Should the state of the forest and forest con­ser­va­tion al­low it, the main­ten­ance and use of the forest may be dis­pensed with en­tirely or in part for eco­lo­gic­al and land­scape reas­ons.

⁴ The can­tons may de­lim­it suit­able areas as forest re­serves for the con­ser­va­tion of the spe­cies di­versity of flora and fauna.

⁵ Where re­quired by the pro­tect­ive func­tion of the forest, the can­tons en­sure a min­im­um level of main­ten­ance.

Any per­son who wishes to fell trees re­quires a per­mit is­sued by the forestry ser­vice. The can­tons may provide for ex­emp­tions.

In or­der to en­sure work­er safety, con­tract­ors en­ga­ging in wood har­vest­ing in the forest must demon­strate that the work­ers em­ployed have com­pleted a fed­er­ally re­cog­nised course on the dangers of forestry work.

¹ Clear­cut­ting and forms of wood har­vest­ing that have ef­fects sim­il­ar to clear­cut­ting are pro­hib­ited.

² The can­tons may au­thor­ise ex­emp­tions to al­low spe­cial sil­vi­cul­tur­al meas­ures to be car­ried out.

¹ Should gaps arise in the forest due to in­ter­ven­tions or nat­ur­al events which en­danger the sta­bil­ity or pro­tect­ive func­tion of a forest, their re­stock­ing shall be en­sured.

² If this does not oc­cur through nat­ur­al re­gen­er­a­tion, the gaps must be planted with tree and shrubs that are suited to the loc­a­tion.

¹ Only re­pro­duct­ive ma­ter­i­al and plants that are healthy and suited to the loc­a­tion may be used for forest plant­ing.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is­sues reg­u­la­tions on the ori­gin, use, trad­ing and safe­guard­ing of forest re­pro­duct­ive ma­ter­i­al.

¹ The ali­en­a­tion of forest in the own­er­ship of com­munes and cor­por­a­tions and the di­vi­sion of forests re­quires the au­thor­isa­tion of the can­ton. This may only be gran­ted if the func­tions of the forest are not im­paired as a res­ult.

² If the ali­en­a­tion or di­vi­sion also re­quires au­thor­isa­tion in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Act of 4 Oc­to­ber 1991²⁵ on Rur­al Land Rights, the can­tons shall en­sure that the au­thor­isa­tion pro­cesses pro­ced­ures are com­bined and con­cluded by joint de­cision.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­act reg­u­la­tions on meas­ures for the pre­ven­tion and re­medi­ation of dam­age that arises as a res­ult of nat­ur­al dis­aster or harm­ful or­gan­isms and that could pose a threat to the func­tion of the forest;

² In or­der to pro­tect against harm­ful or­gan­isms, it may ban or lim­it cer­tain or­gan­isms, plants or products, or in­tro­duce re­quire­ments to au­thor­ise, re­port, re­gister or doc­u­ment them.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall es­tab­lish meas­ures at the na­tion­al bor­ders and en­sure that the can­tons set and co­ordin­ate trans-can­ton­al meas­ures with­in the coun­try’s bor­ders.

⁴ It main­tains a fed­er­al plant pro­tec­tion ser­vice whose forest sec­tion is sub­or­din­ate to the fed­er­al of­fice.

¹ Sub­ject to Art­icle 26, the can­tons shall take any meas­ures ne­ces­sary to pre­vent the causes and con­sequences of dam­age that could com­prom­ise the func­tions of the forest. In par­tic­u­lar, they mon­it­or their area for harm­ful or­gan­isms.²⁷

² They shall reg­u­late wild an­im­al pop­u­la­tions in such a way that forest con­ser­va­tion, in par­tic­u­lar nat­ur­al re­gen­er­a­tion with tree spe­cies suited to the loc­a­tion, is guar­an­teed without pro­tect­ive meas­ures. Where this is not pos­sible, they un­der­take meas­ures to pre­vent dam­age caused by wild an­im­als.

¹ Per­sons hand­ling plants must ob­serve the prin­ciples of plant pro­tec­tion.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion, in co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons con­cerned, shall es­tab­lish strategies and guidelines on meas­ures to be taken against harm­ful or­gan­isms that may con­sid­er­ably com­prom­ise forest func­tions. The meas­ures en­sure that:

a.

newly iden­ti­fied harm­ful or­gan­isms are des­troyed in a timely man­ner;

b.

es­tab­lished harm­ful or­gan­isms are con­tained if the ex­pec­ted be­ne­fits out­weigh the costs of con­trol;

c.

harm­ful or­gan­isms found out­side of the forest area are also mon­itored, des­troyed or con­tained in or­der to pro­tect the forest.

³ Own­ers of trees, shrubs, oth­er plants, cul­tures, plant ma­ter­i­al, means of pro­duc­tion and ob­jects that are in­fes­ted or could be in­fes­ted with harm­ful or­gan­isms, or are them­selves harm­ful or­gan­isms, must carry out or al­low mon­it­or­ing, isol­a­tion, treat­ment or de­struc­tion there­of in con­junc­tion with the rel­ev­ant au­thor­it­ies.

In the event of forest dis­asters, the Fed­er­al As­sembly may un­der­take meas­ures, by means of a gen­er­al fed­er­al de­cree not sub­ject to a ref­er­en­dum, that spe­cific­ally serve the pre­ser­va­tion of the forestry and tim­ber sec­tor.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion and can­tons shall take meas­ures to provide sus­tain­able sup­port to the forest in its func­tions, even un­der changed cli­mat­ic con­di­tions.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall co­ordin­ate and pro­mote forestry edu­ca­tion and train­ing.³⁰

² In con­junc­tion with the can­tons, it shall provide the­or­et­ic­al and prac­tic­al train­ing and con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion in forestry at ter­tiary level.³¹

³ …³²

⁴ The le­gis­la­tion on vo­ca­tion­al and pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion and train­ing ap­plies to the train­ing of forestry per­son­nel. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify the forestry edu­ca­tion and train­ing areas, in which the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of the En­vir­on­ment, Trans­port, En­ergy and Com­mu­nic­a­tions im­ple­ments this le­gis­la­tion.³³

The can­tons shall en­sure the train­ing of forestry work­ers and the pro­vi­sion of ad­vice to forest own­ers.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may com­mis­sion or provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for the fol­low­ing pur­poses:

a.

re­search on the forest;

b.

re­search and de­vel­op­ment of meas­ures for the pro­tec­tion of the forest against harm­ful ef­fects;

c.

re­search and de­vel­op­ment of meas­ures aimed at pro­tect­ing hu­man life and sig­ni­fic­ant ma­ter­i­al as­sets against nat­ur­al events;

d.

re­search and de­vel­op­ment of meas­ures to boost the mar­ket for wood and the use of wood.

² It may es­tab­lish and op­er­ate re­search in­sti­tutes.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may en­trust na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions with du­ties re­lat­ing to forest con­ser­va­tion and provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance to them for this pur­pose.

² It may also en­trust to can­ton­al or re­gion­al as­so­ci­ations du­ties of par­tic­u­lar sig­ni­fic­ance for cer­tain re­gions, in par­tic­u­lar in the moun­tain areas.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall en­sure that peri­od­ic sur­veys of the loc­a­tions, func­tions and state of the forest, of the pro­duc­tion and use of wood and of the struc­tures and eco­nom­ic situ­ation of the forestry sec­tor are car­ried out. The forest own­ers and the man­age­ment bod­ies of forestry and tim­ber en­ter­prises must provide the au­thor­it­ies with the in­form­a­tion re­quired and, if ne­ces­sary, ac­qui­esce in the con­duct of en­quir­ies.

² All of those re­spons­ible for car­ry­ing out or eval­u­at­ing sur­veys are bound by of­fi­cial secrecy.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion and can­tons shall en­sure that the au­thor­it­ies and pub­lic are in­formed about the sig­ni­fic­ance and state of the forest and about the forestry and tim­ber sec­tor.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall pro­mote the mar­ket­ing and use of sus­tain­ably pro­duced tim­ber, in par­tic­u­lar by sup­port­ing in­nov­at­ive pro­jects.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall en­cour­age the use of sus­tain­ably pro­duced tim­ber where ap­pro­pri­ate in the plan­ning, con­struc­tion and op­er­a­tion of its own build­ings and in­stall­a­tions.

² When pur­chas­ing wood products, it shall take ac­count of factors such as sus­tain­able and close-to-nature forest man­age­ment and the aim of re­du­cing green­house gas emis­sions.

¹ Sub­sidies paid in ac­cord­ance with this Act is gran­ted with­in the scope of the au­thor­ised cred­its un­der the con­di­tion that:

a.

the meas­ures are cost ef­fect­ive and car­ried out pro­fes­sion­ally;

b.

the meas­ures are as­sessed in con­junc­tion with those of oth­er Fed­er­al Acts both col­lect­ively and ac­cord­ing to their ac­tions in com­bin­a­tion;

c.

the be­ne­fi­ciary makes a con­tri­bu­tion that is pro­por­tion­ate to its eco­nom­ic per­form­ance, the oth­er sources of fin­ance and reas­on­able self-fin­an­cing meas­ures;

d.

third parties, who are be­ne­fi­ciar­ies or ori­gin­at­ors of dam­age, are called on for co-fin­an­cing;

e.

a per­man­ent res­ol­u­tion of con­flicts that is be­ne­fi­cial to forest con­ser­va­tion is reached.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quire that sub­sidies are only paid to be­ne­fi­ciar­ies who par­ti­cip­ate in self-fin­an­cing meas­ures by the forestry and tim­ber sec­tor.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion grants to the can­tons on the basis of pro­gramme agree­ments glob­al com­pens­at­ory pay­ments for meas­ures that pro­tect hu­man life and sig­ni­fic­ant ma­ter­i­al as­sets against nat­ur­al events, in par­tic­u­lar for:³⁶

a.³⁷

the erec­tion, main­ten­ance and re­place­ment of pro­tect­ive struc­tures and in­stall­a­tions;

b.

the cre­ation of forest with spe­cial pro­tect­ive func­tion and the cor­res­pond­ing young forest main­ten­ance;

c.

the com­pil­a­tion of haz­ard re­gisters and haz­ard maps, the es­tab­lish­ment and op­er­a­tion of mon­it­or­ing sta­tions and the de­vel­op­ment of early-warn­ing ser­vices to se­cure set­tle­ments and trans­port routes.

² By way of ex­cep­tion, it may provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance by means of a rul­ing for pro­jects that re­quire an in­di­vidu­al as­sess­ment by the Con­fed­er­a­tion.³⁸

³ The amount of fin­an­cial as­sist­ance provided is de­term­ined by the risk posed by nat­ur­al events and the cost and ef­fect­ive­ness of the meas­ures.³⁹

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion grants to the can­tons on the basis of pro­gramme agree­ments glob­al fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for meas­ures ne­ces­sary for the ful­fil­ment of func­tion of the pro­tect­ive forest, in par­tic­u­lar for:

a.

the main­ten­ance of the pro­tect­ive forest, in­clud­ing the pre­ven­tion and re­medi­ation of forest dam­age that en­danger the pro­tect­ive forest;

b.

the guar­an­tee­ing of the in­fra­struc­ture for the main­ten­ance of the pro­tect­ive forest in­so­far as it takes the forest as a nat­ur­al com­munity in­to ac­count.

^1bis By way of ex­cep­tion, it may provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance by means of a rul­ing for pro­jects that ori­gin­ate as the res­ult of an ex­traordin­ary nat­ur­al event.⁴¹

² The amount of fin­an­cial as­sist­ance is de­term­ined by the pro­tect­ive forest area to be main­tained, the risk to be hindered and the im­pact of the meas­ures.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall grant the can­tons on the basis of pro­gramme agree­ments glob­al fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for meas­ures to pre­vent and mit­ig­ate forest dam­age out­side the pro­tect­ive forest which is caused by nat­ur­al events or harm­ful or­gan­isms.

² By way of ex­cep­tion, it may provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance by means of a rul­ing for in­di­vidu­al pro­jects that re­quire an as­sess­ment by the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

³ The amount of fin­an­cial as­sist­ance is de­term­ined by the risk to be hindered and the im­pact of the meas­ures.

¹ Those re­quired to take meas­ures against harm­ful or­gan­isms in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 27a para­graph 3 may be suit­ably re­im­bursed for any costs of pre­ven­tion, con­trol and re-es­tab­lish­ment that are not borne un­der Art­icle 48a.

² The amount to be re­im­bursed is set by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in a pro­ced­ure that is as simple as pos­sible and free of charge to the per­son who has in­curred costs.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for meas­ures that con­trib­ute to the con­ser­va­tion and im­prove­ment of bio­lo­gic­al di­versity in the forest, in par­tic­u­lar for:⁴⁵

a.

the pro­tec­tion and main­ten­ance of forest re­serves and oth­er eco­lo­gic­ally valu­able forest hab­it­ats;

b.⁴⁶

the fos­ter­ing of biod­iversity and ge­net­ic di­versity of the forest;

c.

the con­nectiv­ity of forest hab­it­ats;

d.

the con­ser­va­tion of tra­di­tion­al forms of forest man­age­ment;

e.⁴⁷

…

² …⁴⁸

³ The level of the fin­an­cial as­sist­ance is based on the sig­ni­fic­ance of the meas­ures in re­la­tion to bio­lo­gic­al di­versity and the ef­fect­ive­ness of the meas­ures.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion provides fin­an­cial as­sist­ance for meas­ures that im­prove the prof­it­ab­il­ity of sus­tain­able forest man­age­ment, in par­tic­u­lar for:⁵¹

a.

inter-op­er­a­tion­al plan­ning bases;

b.

meas­ures to im­prove the man­age­ment con­di­tions of the forestry op­er­a­tions;

c.

tem­por­ary joint meas­ures by the forestry and tim­ber sec­tor for ad­vert­ising and mar­ket­ing pro­mo­tion in the case of ex­cep­tion­al wood sup­ply;

d.

the stor­age of wood in the case of ex­cep­tion­al wood sup­ply;

e.⁵²

pro­mot­ing the train­ing of forestry work­ers and the prac­tic­al train­ing of forestry ex­perts at uni­versity level;

f.⁵³

meas­ures that sup­port the forest in be­ing able to ful­fil its func­tions even un­der changed cli­mat­ic con­di­tions, in par­tic­u­lar for the man­age­ment of young forest and propaga­tion of plant ma­ter­i­al;

g.⁵⁴

ad­apt­a­tion or re­con­sti­t­u­tion of pub­lic in­fra­struc­ture fa­cil­it­ies, in­so­far as these are ne­ces­sary as part of an over­all forest man­age­ment concept and take ac­count of the forest as a close-to-nature hab­it­at, and over­de­vel­op­ment is avoided.

² It provides fin­an­cial as­sist­ance:

a.⁵⁵

for meas­ures un­der para­graph 1 let­ters a, b and d–g: as glob­al sub­sidies on the basis of pro­gramme agree­ments con­cluded with the can­tons;

b.

for meas­ures un­der para­graph 1 let­ter e: by a rul­ing of the Fed­er­al Of­fice.

³ The level of the fin­an­cial as­sist­ance is based on the ef­fect­ive­ness of the meas­ures.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion provides sub­sidies for the edu­ca­tion and train­ing of forestry per­son­nel ac­cord­ing to Art­icles 52–59 of the Vo­ca­tion­al and Pro­fes­sion­al Edu­ca­tion and Train­ing Act of 13 Decem­ber 2002⁵⁶.⁵⁷

² In derog­a­tion from para­graph 1 it as­sumes up to 50 per­cent of the oc­cu­pa­tion-spe­cif­ic costs, in par­tic­u­lar for the on-site prac­tic­al train­ing of forestry per­son­nel and cre­ation of teach­ing ma­ter­i­al for forestry per­son­nel.⁵⁸

³…⁵⁹

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may grant in­terest-free or low-in­terest re­pay­able cred­its:

a.

as build­ing loans;

b.⁶⁰

for the fin­an­cing of the re­sid­ual costs of meas­ures eli­gible for sub­sidy un­der Art­icles 36, 37 and 38a para­graph 1 let­ter b;

c.

for the ac­quis­i­tion of forestry vehicles, ma­chines and equip­ment and for the cre­ation of forestry in­stall­a­tions.

² The loans are lim­ited in term.

³ Loans are only gran­ted on the ap­plic­a­tion of the can­ton. If a debt­or does not meet his re­pay­ment ob­lig­a­tion, the rel­ev­ant can­ton shall as­sume re­spons­ib­il­ity for the re­pay­ment in his place.

⁴ Re­pay­ments shall be used to fund new in­vest­ment cred­its.

¹ The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall ap­prove by simple fed­er­al de­gree a tem­por­ary four-year guar­an­tee cred­it⁶² for the pro­vi­sion of sub­sidies and cred­its.

² Sub­sidies for the re­sponse to ex­traordin­ary nat­ur­al events are lim­ited in time ac­cord­ing to the dur­a­tion of the cor­res­pond­ing meas­ures.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may is­sue reg­u­la­tions on the vol­un­tary de­clar­a­tion of ori­gin of forest products and their pro­cessed products in or­der to pro­mote qual­ity and sales.

² Re­gis­tra­tion, pro­tec­tion of la­bels, pro­ced­ures and leg­al pro­tec­tion are gov­erned by the Ag­ri­cul­ture Act of 29 April 1998⁶⁴.⁶⁵

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may trans­fer re­spons­ib­il­ity for the above to third parties.⁶⁶

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully:⁶⁷

a.

clears forest without au­thor­isa­tion;

b.

ob­tains a pay­ment for him­self or oth­ers, to which he is not en­titled by provid­ing un­true or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion;

c.

fails to com­ply with or hinders the pre­scribed gen­er­a­tion of forest

shall be li­able to a cus­todi­al sen­tence not ex­ceed­ing one year or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² If the of­fend­er acts neg­li­gently, he or she shall be li­able to a mon­et­ary pen­alty not ex­ceed­ing 40,000 Swiss francs.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully and without au­thor­isa­tion⁶⁸:

a.

mis­uses forestry build­ings and in­stall­a­tions;

b.

re­stricts the ac­cess­ib­il­ity of the forest;

c.

fails to com­ply with ac­cess­ib­il­ity re­stric­tions ac­cord­ing to Art­icle 14;

d.

drives in the forest or on forest roads with mo­tor vehicles;

e.

fells trees in the forest;

f.

hinders in­vest­ig­a­tions or provides un­true or in­com­plete in­form­a­tion or re­fuses to provide in­form­a­tion in breach of the ob­lig­a­tion to provide in­form­a­tion;

g.

fails to com­ply with­in or out­side of the forest with the reg­u­la­tions on meas­ures for the pre­ven­tion and re­medi­ation of forest dam­age and meas­ures against dis­eases and pests that may threaten the forest in­tern­ally; Art­icle 233 of the Crim­in­al Code⁶⁹ is re­served;

h.

fails to com­ply with the reg­u­la­tions on the ori­gin, use, trade in and safe­guard­ing of forest re­pro­duct­ive ma­ter­i­al. If an of­fence is at the same time an of­fence against the cus­toms le­gis­la­tion, it is pro­sec­uted and judged un­der the Cus­toms Act of 1 Oc­to­ber 1925⁷⁰;

shall be li­able to a mon­et­ary pen­alty not ex­ceed­ing 20,000 Swiss francs.

² At­tempts and com­pli­city are also of­fences.

³ If the of­fend­er acts neg­li­gently, the pen­alty is a fine.

⁴ The can­tons may sanc­tion of­fences against can­ton­al law as con­tra­ven­tions.

If the of­fence or con­tra­ven­tion is com­mit­ted in the course of busi­ness of a leg­al en­tity, a part­ner­ship or a sole pro­pri­et­or­ship or in the course of busi­ness of a pub­lic law cor­por­a­tion or in­sti­tu­tion, Art­icles 6 and 7 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974⁷¹ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law ap­ply.

The can­tons are re­spons­ible for pro­sec­u­tion.

¹ Ap­peal pro­ceed­ings are gov­erned by the gen­er­al pro­vi­sions on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al justice.⁷²

^1bis and ^1ter …⁷³

² The Fed­er­al Of­fice⁷⁴ has the right of ap­peal un­der fed­er­al and can­ton­al law against rul­ings by the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies made on the basis of this Act and its im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

³ The right of ap­peal of the can­tons, com­munes and or­gan­isa­tions con­cerned with the pro­tec­tion of nature and cul­tur­al her­it­age is based on Art­icles 12–12g of the Fed­er­al Act of 1 Ju­ly 1966⁷⁵ on the Pro­tec­tion of Nature and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age.⁷⁶ It is also ac­cor­ded against rul­ings made on the basis of Art­icles 5, 7, 8, 10, 12 and 13 of this Act.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for ap­peal pro­ceed­ings against first in­stance rul­ings in the im­ple­ment­ing le­gis­la­tion.⁷⁷

Au­thor­isa­tions and or­ders in terms of this Act only be­come ef­fect­ive when they come in­to force. This is sub­ject to Art­icle 12e of the Fed­er­al Act of 1 Ju­ly 1966⁷⁸ on the Pro­tec­tion of Nature and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age.⁷⁹

¹ If re­quired by forest con­ser­va­tion meas­ures or the erec­tion of struc­tures and in­stall­a­tions for pro­tec­tion against nat­ur­al haz­ards, the can­tons may ac­quire the ne­ces­sary landed prop­erty and any as­so­ci­ated ease­ments through com­puls­ory pur­chase.

² The can­tons may de­clare the Com­puls­ory Pur­chase Act of 20 June 1930⁸⁰ to be ap­plic­able in their im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions whereby the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall rule on any ob­jec­tions that re­main in dis­pute. If the ob­ject of the com­puls­ory pur­chase ex­tends over the ter­rit­ory of more than one can­ton, the Com­puls­ory Pur­chase Act ap­plies.

The costs of meas­ures that the au­thor­it­ies in­tro­duce or or­der to pre­vent im­me­di­ate threat or det­ri­ment to the forest and to as­cer­tain and mit­ig­ate such threat or det­ri­ment shall be trans­ferred to the culp­able ori­gin­at­or.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion su­per­vises the en­force­ment of this Act and im­ple­ments the du­ties dir­ectly as­signed to it by this Act.

^1bis It co­ordin­ates its en­force­ment meas­ures with those of the can­tons.⁸³

² Be­fore a fed­er­al au­thor­ity is­sues a rul­ing on the basis of the Forest Act based on an­oth­er Fed­er­al Act or an in­ter­na­tion­al agree­ment, it shall con­sult the can­tons con­cerned. The Fed­er­al Of­fice and the oth­er fed­er­al agen­cies con­cerned co­oper­ate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 62a and 62b of the Gov­ern­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Act of 21 March 1997⁸⁴ in re­la­tion to en­force­ment.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil en­acts the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions. It may del­eg­ate the is­su­ing of pro­vi­sions of a primar­ily tech­nic­al or ad­min­is­trat­ive nature to the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of the En­vir­on­ment, Trans­port, En­ergy and Com­mu­nic­a­tion or its agen­cies and to sub­or­din­ated fed­er­al of­fices.⁸⁵

¹ The can­tons en­force this Act and en­act the ne­ces­sary reg­u­la­tions; Art­icle 49 is re­served.

² The can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies shall un­der­take im­me­di­ately the meas­ures ne­ces­sary to re­dress un­law­ful situ­ations. They are au­thor­ised to col­lect se­cur­ity de­pos­its and im­pose sub­stitutive ex­e­cu­tion.

The en­force­ment au­thor­it­ies may com­mis­sion and re­mu­ner­ate pub­lic or private agen­cies to con­duct con­trols and oth­er en­force­ment meas­ures.

¹ The can­tons en­sure the ap­pro­pri­ate or­gan­isa­tion of the forestry ser­vice.

² They di­vide their ter­rit­ory in­to forest dis­tricts and forest areas. These are man­aged by forestry ex­perts with ter­tiary-level edu­ca­tion and prac­tic­al ex­per­i­ence.⁸⁷

The can­ton­al im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions on Art­icles 16 para­graph 1, 17 para­graph 2 and 20 para­graph 2 re­quire the ap­prov­al of the Con­fed­er­a­tion to be val­id.

¹ All can­ton­al im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions must be made known to the Fed­er­al Of­fice pri­or to their entry in­to force.

² The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of the En­vir­on­ment, Trans­port, En­ergy and Com­mu­nic­a­tions stip­u­lates which can­ton­al pro­vi­sions and de­cisions must be made known to the Fed­er­al Of­fice.

The fol­low­ing are re­pealed:

a.

the Fed­er­al Act of 11 Oc­to­ber 1902⁸⁸ on the Su­per­vi­sion of the Forest Po­lice by the Con­fed­er­a­tion;

b.

the Fed­er­al Act of 21 March 1969⁸⁹ on In­vest­ment Cred­its for the Forestry Sec­tor in the Moun­tain Re­gion;

c.

the Fed­er­al De­cree of 21 Decem­ber 1956⁹⁰ on the Con­tri­bu­tion of the Con­fed­er­a­tion to the Re­hab­il­it­a­tion of Forests In­fes­ted with Chest­nut Blight;

d.

the Fed­er­al De­cree of 23 June 1988⁹¹ on Ex­traordin­ary Meas­ures for the Con­ser­va­tion of the Forest.

…⁹²

¹ The new law ap­plies to pro­ceed­ings pending on the com­mence­ment of this Act. The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity ac­cord­ing to the old law shall com­plete the pending pro­ceed­ings.

² Un­lim­ited de­for­est­a­tion au­thor­isa­tions lapse two years after the com­mence­ment of this Act. In in­di­vidu­al cases, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may pro­long the dead­line on ap­plic­a­tion if the con­di­tions for de­for­est­a­tion are ful­filled. The ap­plic­a­tion must be made be­fore the ex­piry date. The ad­apt­a­tion of rul­ings to the new law is re­served.

³ Con­tract­ors har­vest­ing wood in the forest are ex­empt up to five years after the com­mence­ment of this Act from the duty im­posed by Art­icle 21a, whereby they must demon­strate that the work­ers em­ployed have com­pleted a fed­er­ally re­cog­nised course rais­ing aware­ness of the dangers of forestry work.⁹³

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date:⁹⁴ 1 Janu­ary 1993