The forests of Switzerland are located across much of the country, at elevations up to the tree line, which lies at about 2,000 metres above sea level. They cover 1.3 million hectares or 32% of Switzerland. The most wooded regions of the country are the massifs of the Jura and the Alps. The diversity of the climate in Switzerland favors both deciduous and coniferous forests.
In Switzerland, the forest is defined as: [1]
any area that is covered with forest trees or forest shrubs and can fulfil forest functions
This includes:
grazed forests, wooded pastures, stands walnut and chestnut trees; unforested or unproductive areas of forest land, such as voids or areas occupied by forest roads or other forest constructions or facilities; land subject to an obligation to reforest
This excludes:
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
The minimum area for a stand of trees to be considered as a forest and not an isolated group is defined by the cantons.
In 2012, the wooded area in Switzerland occupied 1,258,658 hectares (3,110,210 acres). Its distribution in the different geographical areas of the country is 18% in the Jura, 18% on the Swiss Plateau, 19% in the northern Alpine foothills, 31% in the High Alps and 14% on the south side of the Alps. As for its owners, 363,000 hectares (900,000 acres), i.e. 29%, belong to approximately 250'000 private owners [2] and 896,000 hectares (2,210,000 acres) respectively, i.e. 71%, to public owners. In constant evolution, it has increased in size by about 3% since 1991 in a very unequal way depending on the region. [3]
The total surface increased slightly to 1,266,423 hectares (3,129,400 acres) in 2015, of which 1,110,433 hectares (2,743,940 acres) of productive surfaces, 155,990 hectares (385,500 acres) of unproductive surfaces and 66,027 hectares (163,160 acres) of forest reserves. [4] The breakdown and number of private and public owners remains similar to 2012.
The country's forests are composed of a total wood volume of about 422 million cubic meters. There are 67% softwoods, mainly firs and spruces, and 33% hardwoods, with mainly beech. Since the 2010s, there has been a dominance of mixed stands in Swiss forests, with only 19% pure stands. According to the national forest inventory, 92% of regenerating stands come from natural seeding. There are 120 different forest types in Switzerland. [5]
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a forest as, "Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use." Using this definition, Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 found that forests covered 4.06 billion hectares, or approximately 31 percent of the world's land area in 2020.
The geography of Switzerland encompasses the geographical features of Switzerland, a mountainous and landlocked country located in Western and Central Europe. Switzerland's natural landscape is marked by its numerous lakes and mountains. It is surrounded by 5 countries: Austria and Liechtenstein to the east, France to the west, Italy to the south and Germany to the north. Switzerland has a maximum north–south length of 220 kilometres (140 mi) and an east–west length of about 350 kilometres (220 mi).
The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps, represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss Plateau and the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, one of its three main physiographic regions. The Swiss Alps extend over both the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, encompassing an area sometimes called Central Alps. While the northern ranges from the Bernese Alps to the Appenzell Alps are entirely in Switzerland, the southern ranges from the Mont Blanc massif to the Bernina massif are shared with other countries such as France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein.
Haute-Savoie is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France, bordering both Switzerland and Italy. Its prefecture is Annecy. To the north is Lake Geneva; to the south and southeast are Mont Blanc and the Aravis mountain range.
Vaud, more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its flag bears the motto "Liberté et patrie" on a white-green background.
An arboretum in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arboreta are in botanical gardens as living collections of woody plants and is intended at least in part for scientific study.
The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau is one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland, lying between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss Alps. It covers about 30% of the Swiss surface area, and is partly flat but mostly hilly. The average height is between 400 metres (1,300 ft) and 700 metres (2,300 ft) AMSL. It is by far the most densely populated region of Switzerland, the center of economy and important transportation.
Cornol is a municipality in the district of Porrentruy in the canton of Jura in Switzerland.
Les Hauts-Geneveys is a former municipality in the district of Val-de-Ruz in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.
The forest of Fontainebleau is a mixed deciduous forest lying sixty kilometres (37 mi) southeast of Paris, France. It is located primarily in the arrondissement of Fontainebleau in the southwestern part of the department of Seine-et-Marne. Most of it also lies in the canton of Fontainebleau, although parts of it extend into adjoining cantons, and even as far west as the town of Milly-la-Forêt in the neighboring department, Essonne. Several communes lie within the forest, notably the towns of Fontainebleau and Avon. The forest has an area of 250 km2 (97 sq mi).
Burkina Faso is largely wild bush country with a mixture of grass and small trees in varying proportions. The savanna region is mainly grassland in the rainy season and semi desert during the harmattan period. Fauna, one of the most diverse in West Africa, includes the elephant, hippopotamus, buffalo, monkey, lions, crocodile, giraffe, various types of antelope, and a vast variety of bird and insect life. The country has 147 mammal species, 330 aquatic species including 121 species of fish and 2067 different plant species. Of the plant species, the dominant endemic species are shea tree (Butyrospermum parkii) and the baobab, the former plant species has immense economic value to the country.
The once vast Forêt de Rouvray was a forest that extended from west of Paris in the Île-de-France region westwards into Normandy, virtually unbroken, threaded by the winding loops of the River Seine, traversed by forest traces and dotted with isolated woodland hamlets, as far as Rouen. A rural relict is the 5 100 ha of the protected Forêt Domaniale de la Londe-Rouvray, at Les Essarts, Normandy, near Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, south of Rouen, on an upland massif above the left bank of the Seine, which makes a wide arc enclosing it. On the right bank, to the west, is what is left of the Forêt de Roumare, another former royal forest.
The Forest of Tronçais is a national forest comprising 10,600 hectares in the Allier department of central France. It is managed by the National Forests Office (ONF). Its oaks, planted by Louis XIV's minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert to supply the French Navy, constitute one of the principal stands of oaks in Europe.
Milvignes is a municipality in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland. It was formed on January 1, 2013 by merging the former municipalities Auvernier, Bôle and Colombier.
A national forest is a forest that is owned by the French state. This status originates with the Edict of Moulins of 1566. French national forests are managed by the National Board of Forestry (NFB) under the national forestry law, the successor of ordinances and regulations that have taken place since the time of Charlemagne "at the discretion of political, economic and demographic context of France, making the first state-owned natural forest areas whose management is rigorously controlled".
The forest in Germany covers 11.4 million hectares, 32 percent of the total area of the country. In the German forests grow about 90 billion young and old trees with a total wood stock of 3.7 billion cubic meters. The definition of the Federal Forest Act (BWaldG) for forest is: "any area planted with forest plants. Forest also includes clear-cut or shaded ground areas, forest roads, forest clearance and securing strips, forest meadows and clearings, forest meadows, grass clearing areas, wood storage areas and other areas associated with and serving the forest."
The Eu forest is one of the great forests of Seine-Maritime, in Normandy. Covering an area of 9,300 hectares, this beech forest, located in Le Petit Caux in the north-east of the department and the region, has close historical links to the Orléans family.
The Rivière-Chézine old forest is an exceptional forest ecosystems of Quebec located in Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier, in La Jacques-Cartier Regional County Municipality, in administrative region of Capitale-Nationale, in the province of Quebec, Canada. It protects a yellow birch to fir who is over 160 years (5,000 Ms). It is located in zec Batiscan-Neilson.
The Pays-de-Monts national forest, also known as the Monts forest, is a French national forest stretching over the dunes of the northern Vendée coast.
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