Establishments in the forestry

With an area of 1.3 million hectares, around one third of Switzerland is covered in forest, which shapes both the landscape and our quality of life. Forests perform valuable public services, such as providing protection against avalanches or rockfalls, and they can reduce water runoff. The forest produces wood, a renewable and sustainable resource. There are currently 535 million live trees in Swiss forests with a total volume of 419 million cubic metres of timber. Two thirds of these are coniferous wood; spruce (44%), beech (18%), fir (15%) and larch (6%) are the main tree species in terms of volume. The average annual wood growth is approximately 10 million cubic metres (2006 – 2013) and,
each year, 5 million cubic metres of wood is cut down. More than 700 public forestry businesses manage the forests and use two thirds of the wood. In addition, around 850 mobile/flexible forestry companies work on behalf of the forest owners. About half of the timber is sold as logs, while around one third is wood fuel. Around 400 sawmills process 1.8 million cubic metres into sawn timber, wood fuel and raw material for paper and other uses.
The forestry industry employs around 6,200 people and a further 7,500 people work in raw timber processing. The forestry industry production value is around 1 billion Swiss francs and the entire gross value added of the Swiss forest and timber industry is in the region of 4.5 billion Swiss francs per year.