Growing Trees for a Degrowth Society: An Approach to Switzerland's Forest Sector

Abstract

Forests are under immense stress globally. Economic growth is one reason for this: its impacts can lead to deforestation and put tremendous harvesting pressure on forests. In light of increasingly popular – and growth-based – bioeconomy strategies, the need for more wood is likely to accelerate. Degrowth, in contrast, rejects economic growth as the central economic principle, arguing that the material throughput of countries in the Global North must shrink to achieve global sustainability. Although the concept has gained importance, there have been no attempts to link degrowth with the forest sector. This article argues that degrowth principles are beneficial for basing the forest sector on sustainable grounds, while the degrowth movement also needs to define its relationship to the forest. Against this backdrop, this contribution sets the cornerstone by linking the Swiss forest sector to central degrowth principles, and discussing possible interrelations and mismatches. Finally, a future research agenda for degrowth and the forest sector is presented.

Editorial

“…While advocating for non-commodification of the forests, unlike Wienhues's exploration of nonhuman selfhood, Creutzburg grants the Swiss forests no intrinsic rights. The goal for degrowth is one for one replacement of milled trees, and development of biodiverse forests, with minimal human 'management' intervention -a wilderness model of afforestation common to western environmental ethics, 9 and at odds with many Indigenous People's view that human and nonhuman exist in relationship (Chao 2022;Wall Kimmerer 2013;Winter 2022). Relationships in degrowth strategies should be established, says Creutzburg, with farming and architecture: that is, the forest sector alone cannot achieve the goal of degrowth and reduction in atmospheric carbon.…”