Facts and Figures

• 300,000,000 (300 million) – the number of years that forests have existed on our planet (they are the final stage of ecological succession, occurring wherever there is sufficient annual precipitation and an average minimum temperature of around -2°C)

• 4,000 million (4 billion) hectares (ha) — the approximate surface area still covered by forests worldwide, equal to about 30% of the land area of our planet. They once extended over a large part of Earth’s terrestrial surface

• 3 trillion trees — the (rough) number of trees on Earth (some 420 trees per living person)

• 13 million ha — the area of forest disappearing every year due to deforestation; in just eleven regions of the world, in only 10 countries

• 15 billion trees — the number of trees cut down by humans every year

• 5 billion trees — the number of trees planted or regrowing every year

• 170 million hectares – the area we could lose by 2030, along with the attendant loss of countless organisms

• 2 billion hectares — the area of forest cleared in the last 10,000 years. In other words, the world has lost 1/3 of its forests or an area 2x the size of the USA 

• 46% — the decrease in tree number since the beginning of human civilisation (humans are not very good to trees!).

• The number 1 destroyer of forests — humans! Indeed, valuable forests are being cut down to convert into agricultural land to satisfy our hunger for meat, soy, palm oil and other products. Growing demand for energy wood combined with the false idea that burning wood is environmentally friendly are also destroying the basis of our existence, the forest

• 5 — the number of forest regions into which Switzerland is divided (Jura, Central Plateau, Pre Alps, Alps and southern Alps)

• 32% — the area of Switzerland still covered by forest, with a volume of about 421 million cubic metres (m³)

• 292 — the number of sawmills in Switzerland, of which most (62) are located in the canton of Bern

• The most common tree species found in Swiss forests: spruce (43%), pine (15%) and beech (18%)

• 51% — the percentage of Swiss forest with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification in 2020 (despite the regular use of toxic insecticides and other scandals)

• 3,500 — the number of public forest owners in Switzerland, made up of political municipalities, civil and burger communities, cantons and the federal government

• Art. 699 — Article of the Swiss Civil Code that guarantees free right of access to the forest

• 2 main legislations — govern forest management in Switzerland: the Federal Act on Forests (ForA) and the Federal Ordinance on Forest (ForO). But cantons have a great deal of leeway and the law also comes with many loopholes; to the detriment of forests

• 40% — the amount of wood extracted from the mixed forests of the Central Plateau as a percentage of the total Swiss timber harvest, despite this region being the least forested

• 11% — the decrease in standing stock on the Central Plateau in the last 20 years (up until 2017) due to overexploitation. Between 2001 and 2020, Central Plateau forests decreased by 2,7% and logging is now unsustainable, with yield (harvest + mortality) exceeding growth

• 8,150 ha — the area of forest lost in the canton of Bern since 2000, according to “Global Forest Watch“, which is the largest loss in Switzerland whose national average is 1,760 ha