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Over 160 subsidies are damaging biodiversity in Switzerland
Over 160 subsidies in different areas not only support a variety of political goals but at the same time damage biodiversity, as researchers from the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL and the Biodiversity Forum of the Swiss Academy of Sciences demonstrate in a study published on Monday. This is despite the fact that Switzerland has committed itself under the Convention on Biological Diversity to adapting or abolishing biodiversity-damaging subsidies by 2020.
Image: Hansjakob Fehr, 1kiloBiodiversity damaging subsidies in Switzerland
The Confederation, the cantons and the municipalities have for many years financed measures to promote biodiversity in Switzerland. Despite this, biodiversity is in a critical state. One major reason for this is the large number of public subsidies and perverse financial incentives which promote activities that can cause severe damage to biodiversity. The Federal Council's Swiss Biodiversity Strategy aims to identify the negative effects of such measures and to abolish, gradually dismantle or redesign the harmful subsidies. The study presented here identifies 162 subsidies harmful to biodiversity and makes recommendations on how they can be abolished or reconfigured.
Image: SCNAT, WSL