Environment Urban and rural areas disagree on promoting biodiversity

Voters in Switzerland do not want additional efforts to be made for more biodiversity. However, cities and rural areas disagree on whether more support measures are needed. Several cities adopted the initiative, in some cases by a clear margin.

Overall, the biodiversity initiative was rejected on Sunday with 63% of the vote. Only two cantons voted in favor. Around 1,579,300 voters voted no and around 926,200 voted yes. Voter turnout was average at just under 45%.

The canton of Schwyz had the largest No share with just under 77%. Appenzell Innerrhoden, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Uri had No votes of around 75 percent. There was a Yes vote in two cantons: Basel-Stadt said yes with almost 58 percent and Geneva with around 51 percent.

100 percent No in Gondo-Zwischbergen VS

The 'no' percentages varied considerably: the Valais municipality of Gondo-Zwischbergen gave the initiative the cold shoulder: all 31 voters in the village rejected it. The municipalities of Unterschächen and Spiringen in the canton of Uri also had no votes of more than 95 percent.

In contrast, some of the cities in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland voted in favor of the initiative: Bern said yes with 68 percent and Lausanne and Basel with around 60 percent each. However, the cities in the canton of Ticino said no.

Overall, the "no" vote is more clear-cut than expected according to the polls. The supporters' argument that Switzerland is facing a biodiversity crisis clearly did not hold water. This was despite the fact that the federal government had conceded before the vote that biodiversity needed to be promoted more strongly.

Now it remains with what is already being done. This includes conservation inventories, financial support as well as the strategy and the Biodiversity Action Plan, which puts the strategy into concrete terms. The federal government currently spends around CHF 600 million a year on biodiversity. Most of this money goes to agriculture.

Work on second action plan

The Confederation is currently working on the second Biodiversity Action Plan. The association supporting the initiative is insisting on an effective action plan. The Federal Council and Parliament must do what is possible within the framework of current legislation. The Federal Council would have wanted an indirect counter-proposal to the initiative, but was defeated in parliament.

The initiative "For the future of our nature and landscape (biodiversity initiative)" would have committed the federal government and cantons to more protection of biodiversity, landscape and architectural heritage. It called for more land and more public funding for biodiversity, but without figures.

The opponents argued that the additional promotion of biodiversity would severely restrict food production. 30 percent of the land area would become practically untouchable. This figure was clearly the initiators' target, even if the initiative did not contain any figures.

According to the opponents, electricity production using renewable energies would also be affected, as would the forestry and timber industry and the use of mountain areas for tourism. The SVP, FDP and Center Party and the business community, including the Swiss Farmers' Association, were active in the No committee.

"Protect what we need"

The initiative committee ran its campaign under the slogan "Protect what we need". It argued that a diverse natural environment is a prerequisite for clean water, fertile soil, pollination of plants and healthy food.

Around seventy national and more than 350 cantonal organizations from nature conservation, environmental protection, agriculture, fisheries, Swiss parks and landscape conservation backed the initiative. The SP, Greens and GLP supported the initiative.

SDA