Squaring the Circle? The Role of Protection Forest Experts in Negotiation Processes with Local Rural Populations in Switzerland since 1876.

Abstract

Today, around half of all Swiss forests have a protective function. The federal government and the cantons invest around 150 million Swiss francs annually in their management. In return, these forests make an indispensable contribution to preventing or at least reducing risks from natural hazards.

The now strongly institutionalized system of Swiss protection forest policy slowly developed from the second half of the 19th century onwards, largely under the influence of forestry experts such as Johann Coaz (1822-1918) or Elias Landolt (1821-1896). Actors like them gave rise to an "epistemic community" with the common goal of forming and implementing a modern Swiss forest policy.

The core of this paper is the comparison of the two case studies "St. Antönien" and "Bergün" to illustrate which strategies forestry experts have used since 1876 to implement their protection forest concepts locally and how they interacted with the rural population. The comparison of the two regions is appealing, since one used to be an isolated mountain valley without significant economic importance, while the other one came into national focus in 1898 as a critical waypoint of the new Albula railroad. However, what both case studies have in common is that the local population at some point neglected the strongly patriarchal approaches of early Swiss forestry policy.

Thus, the focus of the paper is to examine how these experts dealt with such local conflicts and how modern protection forest concepts were finally implemented in both places. The question is raised to what extent the local population was involved in this process, how potential conflicts were defused and how acceptable solutions could be found for all actors involved. Thus, the contribution is also relevant for the present, as Swiss protection forest policy is to face significant adjustments due to climate change in the coming years.