Life insurance forest – degraded to a raw material deposit

Swiss forests are increasingly being used and treated as a pure source of raw material.

Every year, some 4-5 million cubic metres of wood are harvested in Switzerland.

Of the 5 million m³, 2.6 million m³ are burned, as if this were the best thing to do. After all, according to the timber lobby and sellers of wood-fired heating systems, wood is a natural, regional and renewable raw material that combusts in a CO2-neutral manner. Let us take a closer look at those statements:

• This regional raw material is becoming scarce! The 2025 Forest Report (p. 61) from the Federal Office of Public Health confirms: “Usage exceeded net growth in the Jura (124%) and the Mittelland (116%).” Basel and Zurich are also running out of wood because too much is being burned.
• Global scientific studies show that wood can no longer be classified as renewable due to high demand. The frequently heard statement that “more is growing back than is being harvested” ignores the fact that an entire forest ecosystem has disappeared from the harvested site. The ‘more forest’ refers to some other place where a few tree trunks have grown thicker, not to more forest area.
• Wood is of course a natural raw material, just as tobacco and asbestos are natural as well. However, when wood is burned, huge amounts of fine dust and thousands of harmful toxins, 30 times more carcinogenic than cigarette smoke, are emitted.
• Contrary to popular belief and the claims of governments, authorities and the timber lobby, wood burning is demonstrably not CO₂-neutral. On the contrary, wood burning emits more CO₂ (and harmful substances) than fossil fuels, because the amount of CO₂ emitted in the short time it takes for a tree to burn, is by no means reabsorbed by a regrowing tree.

The timber lobby also misleads people to believe that they are burning low-quality wood in their wood-fired heating systems, such as waste wood from carpentry workshops or branches and leftovers from timber harvesting for construction purposes. Far from it: today, machines weighing over 30 tonnes drive directly into the forest to chop up the felled trees on site for combustion, including the trunks.

The destruction of forests is glossed over. But forests, if not excessively exploited, are our life insurance:

• 42% of our drinking water sources are located in the forest.
• Forests protect villages and valleys from avalanches, rockfalls and mudslides.
• Over 70% of our biodiversity depends directly or indirectly on forests.
• Forests store CO₂ and cool our environment and our cities.

Please compare the size of the silage bales with the amount of wood that has been cut at the top of the cover photo!

September 2025