Ansätze zur senkung der holzerntekosten in der Schweiz

Abstract

For over two decades, the majority of Swiss forest enterprises have been confronted with financial losses. One of the main reasons for this is the general diminishing of revenues from timber sales since the 1980s. Moreover, Swiss forest enterprises have not managed to reduce the most important matter of expenses - the timber harvesting costs - to a similar extent. In comparison, unit costs from timber harvest in Switzerland are more than twice as high as those in the neighboring countries. This study analyzes the cause-and-effect relationships that lead to the high timber harvesting costs in Swiss forest enterprises. Building on that, possibilities of reducing these costs are proposed. The study is based on the results obtained through the Swiss Forestry Holding Network (HDN). The results have been systematically analyzed, the cause-and-effect relationships graphically depicted, and the gained knowledge has been discussed with experts. In essence, the results from the HDN suggest that the high timber harvesting costs are primarily a consequence of the structural situation of the Swiss forest enterprises. The over-proportionally high number of employees and large machinery parks allocated to each of the management areas are inevitably leading to high timber harvesting costs, and thus to suboptimal timber harvesting methods. Subsequently, this is all giving rise to an unfavorable cost situation. Furthermore, economies of scale can hardly be reached among the large numbers of relatively small forest enterprise management areas producing low usage quantities. In essence, the most important approaches to reducing the timber harvesting costs are the more frequent involvement of specialized forest services for harvesting, and measures that lead to the enlargement of the management areas. In order to reduce timber harvesting costs and by that improve operation results, a critical reflection of the current forest management strategy is unavoidable.