National Parks
Switzerland has a network of different types of protected areas (national parks, regional parks and peri-urban nature parks). Switzerland has one national park:
The Swiss National Park: located in the Engadine region, it protects mountain ecosystems associated with a great diversity of flora. Unlike the country's other parks, no human intervention has been carried out to allow natural regeneration. In fact, the area has been heavily degraded in the past by human activities (massive deforestation linked to industry and livestock farming). To find out more: www.nationalpark.ch
Studies are also being carried out in Switzerland on nature in the city, with the aim of studying biodiversity and its evolutionary dynamics in the face of the impact of human activities. The Zurich University of Applied Sciences, for example, is working on the evolution of birds in urban environments. For further information: www.natureenville.ch
Progress in agriculture
An agricultural and wine-producing country, Switzerland has not escaped industrial agriculture. However, organic farming is growing in the country, in correlation with an increase in the consumption of organic products and short distribution channels. Among the measures in favor of biodiversity and health, we should note the ban, in force since 2021, on the export of five pesticides already banned in Switzerland, a victory for activists (notably the NGO Public Eye) over the agri-pharmaceutical lobby. Switzerland is home to Basel-based agrochemist Syngéta, now ChemChina since its takeover by a Chinese company. Numerous actions led by NGOs continue to be organized to obtain a total ban on the production and export of pesticides. However, in June 2021, the Swiss voted (60.7%) against a ban on synthetic pesticides and the granting of subsidies to farmers who produce without pesticides or who do not use antibiotics as a preventive measure for their animals. The argument, which would have swayed the Swiss, was that measures to ban pesticides would not ensure the country's food sovereignty.
Fighting plastic pollution in lakes
The transparency of Swiss lakes conceals a worrying level of plastic pollution, sometimes comparable to that of the Mediterranean. According to the latest study by Oceancare, published in 2023, 55 t of plastic are discharged into Lake Geneva every year. Macroplastics come mainly from packaging waste. Microplastics come mainly from tire dust, but also from clothing and cosmetics. Preventing this type of pollution, on an individual basis, can consist in not throwing your waste into nature (which is an offence, by the way), but also in choosing products - including clothing - that are free of plastic materials, by getting into the habit of reading and deciphering labels. We can also choose to install particle filters in washing machines (a device that will be made compulsory for washing machine manufacturers from 2025 in France).
Facing climate change
As a mountainous country, Switzerland is currently experiencing a temperature rise of more than +2°C compared to the pre-industrial era, despite the fact that climate change must be limited to +2°C in order to maintain the conditions for a world fit for human habitation. Rising temperatures will accelerate the melting of glaciers and increase the frequency and intensity of extreme phenomena (floods, droughts, landslides). The IPCC report, published in August 2021, leaves no doubt as to the human responsibility for climate change and calls on decision-makers to take urgent action. In 2019, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child called Switzerland to account for the inadequacy of its climate targets. Switzerland's carbon strategy, based on theCO2 and Climate Protection Act, is insufficient to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. However, the revision of this law - with a view to incorporating greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in line with the Paris agreements - was rejected - narrowly - by a popular vote in June 2021. The country's climate challenges remain linked to its dependence on fossil fuels. Among the challenges to be tackled to lower greenhouse gas emissions are decarbonization of transport (reducing car and air traffic), energy efficiency in buildings, agriculture, but also finance, whose flows are used to develop fossil fuel-related projects. According to a statement by the NGO Swiss Youth for Climate in 2019, the financial sector emits twenty times more greenhouse gases than the whole of Switzerland. That same year, activists from the NGO Collective Climate Justice occupied the headquarters of Credit Suisse and UBS in Zurich to denounce the sector's practices.
Travelling differently
Switzerland is easily accessible by active modes of transport (cycling, walking and rail). The country, which is criss-crossed by four European cycle routes (EuroVelo 5, 6, 15 and 17), has 8,500 km of cycle paths (for more information: www.schweizmobil.ch). If you'd like to start cycling, don't hesitate to read the works of one of Switzerland's most famous cyclists, Claude Marthaler (see: www.claudemarthaler.ch). If you're a keen walker, Switzerland offers a wide range of hiking trails (for ideas, see www.myswitzerland.com). The European route Sur les pas des Huguenots (In the footsteps of the Huguenots) takes you from France through part of Switzerland (to find out more: www.surlespasdeshuguenots.eu). Switzerland also offers sailing opportunities, notably on Lake Geneva, which has seen many sailors, some of them famous, such as explorer Ella Maillart, Pierre Fehlmann and more recently Laurent Bourgnon, winner of the Route du rhum, who disappeared at sea in 2015.
