Valorisation de la ressource ligneuse en Suisse: à la recherche d’une valeur ajoutée pour les feuillus | Valorisation of Swiss Timber Resources: Seeking Added Value for Hardwood

The evolution of the proportion of hardwood – and especially that of beech – in Swiss forests, as evidenced by the national forest inventories in 1982–1986 and 1993–1995, is confirmed for single regions and forest enterprises. The last two forest inventories show that hardwood produced a higher increment than softwood. The average volume of each standing tree also increased. Not only will it become possible to harvest more hardwood, but the opportunity is offered to process them into end products with a higher added value. But, in fact, the harvested hardwood volumes vary widely from year to year and between the regions of French-speaking Switzerland which were compared. This tends to prove that local market conditions and natural hazards, like the storms Vivian and Lothar,have a higher impact on the planning of forest. The volume of harvested hardwood will not increase as long as no extra financial incentives are given.