Zum Einfluss von Holzmangel und uebermaessiger Holzexploitation auf die Schweizerische Forstpolitik im 19. Jahrhundert : Caring for the Forest/ Research in a Changing World

1996

9 S.

Unselbständiges Werk

200095485

Though timber supplies in the Swiss Lowlands could be ensured by appropriate cutting regulations, excessive cutting in the mountains also always endanered the protection functions insofar as the woods used for timber supplies also protected settlements, roads, and other infrastructure facilities. Already since the Middle Ages had bans been put on more important forests, i.e. no form of exploitation was permitted. The increasing timber demand of expanding towns as well as the beginning of industialisation created serious problems by the end of the 18th and mainly in the 19th century. New forms of transport made it possible to reach more remote forests that had so far been used to cover the demand for timber only rarely or not at all. Serious erosion problems occurred in mountain valleys because of rthless cutting, partly in connection with timber exports. The reports of the 19th century on the large floods increasingly emphasized the need for centralistic state intervention in the mountains, both because of the lack of timber (only 85% of the long-term timber demand being ensured by sustained growth) and the environmental or erosion problems caused by excessive exploitations. In this connection mention is made for the first time of the notion of the importance of forests for the ecosystem.