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Landslides and debris flows are the result of climate change. The fact that forestry is responsible for this in many places is being concealed. Under the guise of protection forest maintenance much larger areas of forest are being cleared than permitted by the legally binding NaiS guidelines (600m²-1200m² felling in protection forests). With devastating consequences: The roots will rot after a few years and the slopes will start to slide.

Just 2 examples

Landslide Schwanden/ Glarus: Deforested area of 13 hectares (look at latest news national and international, November 22, 2024)

Landslide Belp / Bern: Deforested area over 1200m² (photo)

Protests against the production of wood pellets are growing worldwide. The production and burning of pellets is responsible for deforestation, extreme air pollution and countless diseases worldwide. This includes the company Drax, the world’s largest importer of wood pellets and the second-largest pellet manufacturer, which has violated environmental regulations over 11,378 times since 2014. This is now coming to an end – at least in Gloster, Mississippi. Under pressure from the organisation ‘Greater Greener Gloster’, the permit to expand the pellet production plant has now been denied. A victory from Mississippi via Alabama to Georgia and North Carolina.

In Switzerland, wood heating systems are subsidised even though they are the most harmful of all heating systems for health, climate and environment.

As climate change progresses rapidly in Switzerland, heat has a particularly devastating effect on the population. It is the most fatal climate hazard and must be urgently combated by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This is the conclusion of a new report by the Federal Office for the Environment (link)

However, the current forest and energy policy continues to heat up the climate. 

Wood heating systems and wood-fired power plants are promoted and subsidised, even though wood is worldwide no longer classified as sustainable and renewable and although the burning of wood emits more CO2 and pollutants than fossil fuels.

Wood-fuelled district heating plants require immense amounts of wood, which necessitates large-scale clear-cutting, which in turn promotes drought, slope instability and heat.

Federal Councillor and Minister of Environment Albert Rösti assures the population at the site of the disaster that this is a “1 in a 1’000 years event” 

But: in 2017, a rockslide destroyed the village of Bondo in the canton of Graubünden. In 2023, a huge landslide in Brienz / canton of Graubünden stopped just at the borders of the village.

For scientists, it is clear that climate change must have played a role alongside many other factors.

But Federal Councillor and Minister of Environment Rösti is heating up the climate even more with his current forest and climate policy. He promotes wood heating systems and wood-fuelled district heating even though burning wood emits more CO2 and pollutants than fossil fuels and has been proven to damage forests.

And the unscientific ‘climate-friendly forest conversion’ also increases heat and drought.

You can find out more about the Birch Glacier here

Wildfire smoke is some 10 times more toxic than air polluted from burning fossil fuels

The Paul Scherrer Institute PSI concludes that not only the quantity of particulate matter puts our health at risk, but the type of pollution source plays a major role as well. Burning wood produces the most harmful particulate matter.

So why should people be advised to close their windows and stay at home during wildfires, while heating with wood is promoted and subsidized?

Read more about the dangers and prevention of wildfires here

Many parents and children look forward to the barbecue and campfire season in summer. But this tradition has fatal consequences. We now know that wood smoke is thirty times more carcinogenic than cigarette smoke. Burning 1 kilogramme of wood emits the same amount of carcinogenic benzo(a)pyrene as lighting 27,333 cigarettes. And you don’t even have to light a fire yourself. If you smell wood smoke of a neighbour’s charcoal barbecue or fire bowl, you automatically become a passive smoker. This means that children are also exposed to extremely harmful pollutants all year round: In winter from wood heating systems, in summer from wood barbecues, fire bowls and campfires.

Burning wood emits similar harmful substances as tobacco – only in much larger quantities. This is why 53 British health organizations are calling for a ban on wood heating systems in an open letter to the Minister for Housing and Planning. 

Wood heating systems present an extremely high risk to health. Even if they are only used as a secondary heating source, they cause countless diseases, including dementia, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. 

For example, people using a wood-burning heating system have a 70% higher risk of developing lung cancer. Even if you only use your wood-burning stove once a week, the risk of breast cancer increases significantly

Studies show that harmful fine dust particles are not only found indoors, but also in neighbors’ homes and in the air outside. This means that even people without a wood-fired heating system are unintentionally exposed to a significantly increased risk of serious illness.

Anyone who renovates his home during the breeding season must comply with strict legal regulations to avoid disturbing birds while they are breeding. Anyone who does not comply with these rules can expect a heavy fine or a prison sentence of up to one year.

Although the law clearly provides for the protection of birds in the forest during the breeding season, the canton of Bern and the Burgergemeinden clear the forest during this time with harvesters weighing several tonnes and do not even stop at protected areas, such as here in the Suldtal (see photo)

Although the Sempach Ornithological Institute is particularly concerned about protecting birds during the breeding season when renovating houses, it does not intervene even when clear-cutting 10 hectares of forest during the breeding season.

After the Asthma & Lung League of Wales called for a ban on wood-burning heating systems, Australia and Tasmania are now following their example.

“Every new wood-burning stove can put the health of local residents at risk. In addition to the 1 in 9 people with asthma in Australia, pregnant women, aged people, infants and young children are more likely to be affected by health problems caused by their neighbors’ wood smoke. The pollutants in wood smoke also contribute to diseases such as heart disease and dementia,” says Asthma Australia

More and more health organizations around the world are calling for a ban on heating with wood because the health risk from the pollutants from burning wood is at least as high as that from passive smoking.

Burning wood also emits more pollutants and CO2 than fossil fuels, according to the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection.

“Drought is becoming an increasingly frequent natural hazard,” says Paul Steffen, Deputy Director of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment FOEN. Climate change is to blame. (SRF News May 9, 2025)

What Mr. Steffen does not say is that the FOEN is partly responsible for the increasing drought in Switzerland.

Under the guise of climate-friendly forest management, hundreds of hectares of intact forests are being cleared for energy wood. However, forests are our most important allies in the fight against climate change – because forests make the climate.

Excessive forest management dries out the soil, results in less rain, cools the air less, increases the heat even in cities, causes even more glaciers to melt and streams to dry up – all in all, the drought will increase. But all that matters is that there is an early warning system.

Photo: Clear-cutting for energy wood – Bafu supported drought.

In Wales, wood-burning stoves (including the latest Ecodesign stoves) are to be banned because they are harmful to health and the environment. Heating with wood is just as dangerous as passive smoking and causes countless illnesses. According to the Asthma + Lung League, residents who do not have a wood-fired heating system are also at risk, as no one can protect themselves from the pollutants – not even with closed windows.

Another reason for the proposed ban is that, other than claimed, burning wood is not CO2 neutral, heats up the climate and destroys forests and nature.

It is particularly worrying that less than half of those interviewed did not know about the dangers of wood heating systems, according to Joseph Carter, head of Asthma + Lung UK Cymru

In Switzerland, wood heating systems and wood-fired district heating systems are promoted and subsidized despite evidence that they are harmful to health, climate and environment. The Federal Office of Public Health and the Lung and Cancer League remain silent about the problem.

Report Asthma + Lung UK Cymru

Pyrolysis heating was praised to the skies as a new technology and CO2-negative heating system in „Der Bund“ on April 28th 2025.

Now that many surrounding countries are introducing a ban on wood heating systems, a new, so-called climate-neutral and harmless trend is needed.

However, the production of biochar produces heavy metals, dioxins and furans (the most toxic chemicals you can be exposed to) and carcinogenic PAHs. All of these toxins end up in the soil, in nature and thus also in our food chain.

The production of biochar requires an enormous amount of energy and raw materials. The consequence: even more forests (urgently needed ecosystems for our survival) are destroyed.

Heating with wood, in whatever form, is neither CO2 neutral, sustainable nor renewable and harms biodiversity.

You will soon be able to read more about the topic of biochar under the heading “we uncover” (a link will be added to this message)

The Fondation Franz Weber and the IG Berner Wald are hosting an event: This Friday May 2, 17:30 – 20.30 at the Allresto Congress Center, Effingerstrasse 20, 3008 Bern (City West building).

Find out why our forests are really under pressure and discuss with experts who see our livelihood, the complex forest ecosystem, as more than just a supplier of wood.

Admission is free.

What is already clear worldwide is now confirmed once again in an informative document written by several environmental organizations to oppose a wood-fired power plant in Cuxhaven: Burning wood to generate heat and electricity is NOT CLEAN AND RENEWABLE ENERGY, contrary to what wood-fired power plant operators, authorities and politicians say. On the contrary: burning wood emits at least as much CO2 as charcoal.

In Switzerland too, government, authorities and the wood-burning stove industry are pushing “sustainable, ecological and renewable energy” and promoting more and more wood-fired district heating or pellet systems. Even in the case of Cuxhaven, the money for construction would come primarily from Switzerland.

In addition, many operators of district heating plants are no longer able to cover the demand for wood supplies from the much-vaunted proximity and have to rely on imports from abroad – at the expense of ecosystems elsewhere.

A new study has found that particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide significantly increase the risk of developing depression. The risk is further increased considerably when all three pollutants combine – as is the case with wood burning.

Based on these data, the WHO makes it clear that air pollution is the greatest external risk to human health worldwide – and that includes Europe, where wood-fired heating systems are the number one air pollutant despite filters and new systems.

Photo: Trade journal Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

It is a crime against nature to disturb breeding birds or even worse destroy their broods.

In 2023, 10 hectares of forest have been cleared on the Nidauberg (photo) during the breeding and settling season, causing massive disturbance and damage to nesting birds and mammals (especially bats).

It is absolutely incomprehensible that a bird protection organisation is in favour of this! The Sempach / Lucerne / Switzerland Ornithological Institute speaks of ‘a welcome intervention from which many light-loving species will benefit’.

The Swiss Ortnithological Institute was unable to answer the question of how many and which nesting bird species were disturbed/destroyed during this logging – although there are maps that show this in great detail.

The FOEN has published a video on LinkedIn showing the development of particulate matter in Switzerland between 1998 and 2023. ‘A success story’ is the headline.

Indeed, particulate matter levels in Switzerland have improved. Nevertheless, the following facts are worth knowing:

The improvements are mainly due to improvements in particulate filters in the car industry and not, as is often said, because wood is used for heating.

Most of the measuring stations are located in completely irrelevant places. For example, along motorways (where we measure very clean air), on the edge of towns or even far away from places where people live and where there are no emissions at all.

The authorities refuse to take measurements at locations with wood-fired heating systems. No wonder: we measure values of up to 1000ug/m3 there. (WHO limit value 0.5ug/m3)

Many countries banned the use of wood heating systems last winter due to air pollution – including France, Germany and the Netherlands. Wood heating systems (including wood-fired district heating systems) are the dirtiest, most harmful to health and the environment way of heating. The latest stoves with Ecodesign labels or environmental certificates perform particularly badly.

Find out more about the harmfulness of Ecodesign wood stoves here.

On February 17, we asked the head of the AWN specific questions about current forest management. In his reply, he referred to forest legislation, the “Handbook of agreed programs for environmental management” and “project-related cooperation with recognized scientific institutions”, stating that the matter was therefore closed for the AWN. However, this does not apply neither to our side nor to the side of the people – as no concrete position was taken on any of our points and our questions remain unanswered.

What exactly does the federal law on public disclosure require? Is it not that authorities (Confederation / canton) are obliged to provide taxpayers with concrete answers to their questions? Especially since they are co-financing public institutions and it is their very existence, their forest, that is at stake here?

Conditions such as heat, drought and storms but also parasites have hit the forest hard: This means the forest needs help,“ writes Blick on March 31

Rolf Holderegger, Director of Forests, Snow and Landscape, also says: ”The forest has problems.” This fact cannot be denied. However, not a word is said about the fact that the forest has problems due to the current excessive management. What Rolf Holdenegger presents as a solution, namely the planting of climate-resistant trees or “smart forest management” is, in most cases, accompanied by previous clear-cutting of intact forests.

The article also fails to mention that forests with a closed canopy, which are managed sparingly and without harvesters, do not present the problems named above.

The fact that there is already more deforestation than regrowth in the Bernese Plateau is also concealed. The same goes for the canton of Zurich.

Photo: Current forest management: we wonder about weak trees in the Alte Aare nature reserve.

..but it has nothing to do with the climate. The picture shows the nature reserve of the old Aare / Canton of Berne. It also shows how the forests are managed under the direction of the FOEN, the AWN and the commune of Bern.

Entire, intact ecosystems are being destroyed by current forest management. Now those who have already harmed the forest are claiming that they have to help the forest. The easy way to do this is with so-called “climate-friendly forest management”, which in our opinion is a pretext for clear-cutting forests for energy wood.

The industry claims that forest biomass is CO2 neutral because trees grow back.

Wrong: Burning wood produces more CO2 emissions per unit of energy than coal and other fossil fuels, destroys biodiversity and fuels climate change.

This has now been confirmed by the highest administrative court in the Netherlands, which has stopped the construction of Vattenfall’s wood pellet power plant on environmental grounds, even though the environmental permits had already been granted.

The Dutch government is also stopping subsidies for all new biomass power plants.

In the canton of Bern (and elsewhere in Switzerland), almost all district heating systems run exclusively on wood. In our opinion, “climate-friendly forest management”, which destroys entire intact ecosystems, as well as protective forest maintenance, are an excuse to produce energy wood.

The latest forest report shows that forests are in a bad shape: forests on the Central Plateau and in the Jura are doing particularly badly. No problem for the FOEN: we only need to help the forests by making them climate-change-proof. In our opinion, this is a lie: the FOEN is partly responsible for the current state of the forests. They have been over-managed for years, particularly on the Central Plateau and in the Jura (mainly for energy wood), and have been seriously weakened as a result. The beech is also not “susceptible to climate change”, as the report states. However, due to the thinning of forests, they are suffering from overheating and drying out soils.

In addition, the current excessive management makes forests more susceptible to insect infestation, tree diseases and foreign parasites.

In forests with a closed canopy, which are managed little or not at all, hardly any problems can be seen.

Photo: FOEN-supported forest management for the conservation of forests and biodiversity

Clear-cutting is prohibited in Switzerland by the Forest Act.  “Marketing Schweizer Holz” claims on an information board in Längholz forest: ‘…Normally Switzerland does not intervene so radically – …’ A false statement: forests are increasingly being cleared on a large scale. How is this happening despite the strict forest law? Quite simply: If you leave a single tree standing, the intervention is no longer considered clear-cutting If you clear-cut an entire intact ecosystem under the name of “forest restructuration”, this is also not considered clear-cutting. The Swiss Forest Act was enacted after the flood of the century in 1868, which was caused by excessive forest management. As it was based on the protection of the forest, articles were not defined in detail and can be freely interpreted today.

Photo: Community of Bern / Intact ecosystem, CO2 sink, climate regulator, drinking water reservoir, rain dispenser… destroyed – but no clear-cutting

“More forest is growing back than is being harvested”. The forestry industry uses this phrase to justify the current excessive forest management, and wood stove and pellet companies also use it to advertise their so-called sustainable products. 

What is being concealed: In many places, for example in the Bernese Mittelland or in the canton of Zurich, more wood is already being cut down than is growing back.

What is being concealed: Regrowth means that in any area, some tree trunks are increasing in thickness – no more and no less.

What is being concealed: Where timber is being “harvested”, intact forest ecosystems often the size of hectares are destroyed in one fell swoop and with them all the functions of vital importance to us, such as climate regulation, drinking water storage, CO2 sinks, biodiversity and animal habitats.

Current forest management and heating with wood are NOT sustainable, as the picture clearly shows.

The European Commission (EC) had planned to ban all wood heating systems in 2027. Why? Because as the number one air polluters in Europe, wood-fired heating systems pose the greatest threat to human health. In addition to emitting a cocktail of toxic substances, wood burners also produce extremely dangerous Particulate Matter PM2.5. Even so-called “eco-design” stoves emit 650 times more Particulate Matter than a modern truck. In cities such as Rotterdam, Utrecht and Amsterdam, campaigns are already underway to draw attention to the dangers of wood heating systems. The World Health Organization has also issued a warning.

Following pressure from Germany and the Czech Republic however, the EC has backed down and has postponed the ban… for the time being.

Meanwhile in Switzerland, energy wood is being aggressively promoted. The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) along with the Swiss Lung League and the Swiss Cancer League are covering up the health risks.

Forest management in the canton of Bern is focused solely on forestry interests. Citizens are being routinely mislead and fed excuses including “climate-friendly silviculture” to justify clearcutting which is a hallmark of woody biomass production. Read the open letter addressed to Roger Schmidt, Head of the Office for Forests and Natural Hazards of the Canton of Bern, detailing forestry industry methods and outlining our demands.

According to the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN): “Soil is a non-renewable resource vital for forests to develop and thrive”, which is why the tracks left by forest harvesters are monitored and graded. If a track type 3 occurs (ie. tracks are deeper than 10cm), then all timber harvesting work must stop or risk permanently destroying soil structure. Across the canton of Bern, tracks can be found that far exceed this depth.

Photo: these tracks taken in the Bernese Jura are more than 40cm deep!

Letting in light to boost biodiversity was one of the first excuses used by the forestry industry to justify radical logging, including in nature reserves.

While certain forest species do indeed benefit from more light reaching the forest floor, silvicultural interventions to promote such species should be targeted and minimal and replicate the conditions in clearings. In many places however, including in the canton of Bern, these projects increasingly involve clearcutting several hectares.

In Holland, meanwhile, a court recently ruled that clearcutting is detrimental to biodiversity. Will Switzerland follow suit?

More under “we expose”

Image: concept of the town of Blumenstein / Bern / Switzerland and GürbeForst AG, Wattenwil of “Bringing light to the ground”

While other countries have long since realised that the solutions to the climate crisis and the energy transition cannot possibly be achieved by burning wood, Switzerland continues to promote heating buildings and homes with wood (using logs, pellets and woodchips in both private homes and district heating systems). This medieval approach is releasing vast quantities of CO2, increasing climate-damaging emissions, massively endangering the health of the population, destroying forests and nature, and thereby reducing the country’s carbon sink, its climate regulator and its drinking water reservoir and filter system!

We must move away from fossil fuels to counter the climate crisis and achieve a successful energy transition. In fact, we should really stop burning things, full stop. Especially trees. Climate neutrality will not be reached unless we eliminate wood combustion. The city of Hamburg and its energy company agree and have decided that converting the Tiefstack coal-fired power plant to biomass is not an option. Burning wood is problematic because large quantities of CO2 are released immediately, whereas trees grow back slowly, if at all, and will only recapture the released carbon in 30-100 years thereby setting up a “carbon debt”. In addition to increasing climate-damaging emissions, using wood as a fuel on an industrial scale also raises sustainability problems.

Victory for the city of Hamburg!
Victory for us all!
A handful of environmental associations including ROBIN WOOD, BirdLife Germany, Biofuelwatch, Friends of the Earth, the Green Hamburg Party and others, recently scored a knock-out victory in the fight against wood burning. In so doing they have shown that wood as an energy source:

• Is not CO2 neutral!
• Is not sustainable!
• Increases climate-damaging emissions!
• Destroys forests and nature!

Hamburg Power Plants
Green Party Hamburg

Mushroom pickers should be careful where they walk, not trample plants or young trees, not turn over moss and respect the breeding and setting season. Visitors to the Könizbergwald forest should now also avoid leaving the paths and keep their dogs on a leash – because the animals are particularly at risk during the winter months and the breeding and setting seasons – disturbances can make the animals sick, according to biologist Irene Weinberger in the Bund newspaper of November 29. What’s more, disturbances would cause species to disappear and biodiversity to decline.

However, the rules do not apply to the municipality of Bern (and others). It ruthlessly harvests its forests at any time of the year with 40-ton machines.

Air quality measuring stations in Switzerland are often located in completely irrelevant places, namely deep in the countryside or on the outskirts of villages. (Atmospheric pollution is also measured along motorways, but PM emissions from vehicles are down thanks to catalytic converters and fuel additives). This is convenient, because it means officials can provide the population with clean, reassuring figures. These measurements show that the air is cleanest in such areas and often fall within the acceptable value range. The situation is completely different in urban and village centres where pollution levels are NOT officially recorded despite the presence of numerous wood-fired heating systems. Pollution values in quaint, traditional villages can be truly alarming, as in Veyras above Sierre, in the canton of Valais. Here, PM 2.5 levels have been measured at a shocking 1010µg/m3. No problem, say the authorities.

By comparison:

The World Health Organization (WHO) sets the limit value for fine dust particles PM2.5, which are extremely harmful to health at 5µg/m3.

The Swiss limit for PM 2.5 is twice that, at 10µg/m3

The federal government and the canton of Bern want to spend around CHF 46 million on protective forest maintenance until 2028. They say maintenance and regeneration are needed to preserve the forest’s protective function.

Look no further than the Belpberg whose forests are largely classed as Protection Forests against landslides. They are nevertheless being logged despite the legally binding NaiS (Nachhaltigkeit im Schutzwald) guidelines, which clearly state that gaps in landslide protection forests should not exceed 600m2 (in forests that do not regenerate naturally) or 1,200m2 (in forests that do, which is the case on the Belpberg), and that the protective effect may not be reduced by interventions under any circumstances (not even for a short period). These regulations are being elegantly and increasingly bypassed thanks to so-called “climate-adapted forest regeneration”. The truth is that the canton of Bern needs wood to feed its district heating systems, which run almost exclusively on woody biomass, largely woodchips. Now that more trees are being cut down and are dying on the Central Plateau than are growing back, a way has been found to extract yet more wood from the Alps and Pre-Alps by citing the need to maintain Protection Forests. This policy will however come at the expense of citizens and infrastructure for, as the roots rot, the risk of landslides will increase, peaking at around 6-10 years after clearcutting.

Increasingly, the legally binding NaiS (Nachhaltigkeit im Schutzwald) guidelines are being violated in the management of Protection Forests, which make up around half of all Swiss forests, and which help protect citizens and infrastructure from natural hazards such as avalanches and rockfalls. 

The NaiS guidelines clearly stipulate that clearcuts or “gaps”, as they are often referred to, must not exceed 1,200m2 in a Protection Forest that mitigates the risk of landslides, for example. 

Furthermore, the protective function of the forest must not be reduced by the intervention.

But who pays for the devastating consequences (see the Schwanden landslide in the canton of Glarus)? The tax and insurance payers?

Bild: Quelle Google Earth Schwanden / Kanton Glarus

Contrary to popular belief, heating with wood is not climate-neutral. In addition to Particulate Matter emissions (PM2.5), burning wood also produces CO2 and other greenhouse gases such as methane. Burning woody biomass emits more CO2 per unit of heat produced than burning fossil fuels.

German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection

Today, forests are increasingly being clearcut over several hectares, such as on the Nidauberg (13 hectares) or in the Könizbergwald (2 hectares), both in the canton of Bern, in order to feed district heating systems and plant so-called “climate-adapted” trees.

A mistake, as the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL has recognised, but one that is being ignored and obscured by officials and biomass’ proponents.

Researchers at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have found that the components of wood smoke and cigarette smoke are very similar and that both contain many carcinogenic compounds. They estimate that the lifetime cancer risk from wood smoke is 12 times higher than from a comparable amount of cigarette smoke.

The Emerald Network forms a web of nature reserves extending across Europe and into North Africa and was set up under the Bern Convention to protect particularly valuable habitats and species. As a signatory to the Bern Convention, which has been ratified by all European countries except Russia, Switzerland has committed itself to this goal.

The canton of Bern’s Belpau is one such emerald area yet clearcutting and intensive logging have been taking place there for years there and are ongoing. Most of the wood ends up as energy wood in four local biomass burners – and pushback has been paltry, especially from the mainstream nature associations!

A 100-year-old beech tree absorbs some 6 tonnes of CO2 and one tonne of Particulate Matter per year. It produces 4.5 tonnes of oxygen and 400 litres of water per day. To replace this output, 4,000 young trees would have to be planted! An impossibility – especially with regard to the amount of logging and the lack of available space, at least in Switzerland!

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution in which Particulate Matter (PM2.5) plays a decisive role, is the greatest environmental health risk (silent killer) in the European Union.

Wood combustion accounts for 51% of total PM2.5 emissions in the European Union – more than any other emissions source.