NFI Cockpit - Trends of Forest Indicators in Switzerland

The National Forest Inventory NFI is the most important source of data on the state and change of the Swiss forest. The NFI’s indicator set currently consists of 64 international and national indicators for sustainable forest management. This large number of indicators makes an overall interpretation difficult. Therefore, the mathematical-graphical instrument Swiss NFI Cockpit was developed to show the general trends in space and time:

NFI

NFI indicators by criteria

  1. Forest resources
    1. 1.1.1Forest area
    2. 1.1.2Proportion of forest cover
    3. 1.1.3Forest area excluding shrub forest
    4. 1.1.4Shrub forest area
    5. 1.2.1Growing stock
    6. 1.3.1Proportion of young stands
    7. 1.4.1Carbon stock
  2. Health and vitality
    1. 2.2.1Sample plots currently intensively grazed
    2. 2.2.2Sample plots with deposit of non-forest material
    3. 2.2.3Sample plots used intensively for recreation
    4. 2.2.4Proportion of vehicle tracks not on skid trails
    5. 2.3.1Browsing intensity on all species
    6. 2.3.2Browsing intensity on fir
    7. 2.3.3Trees without any visible damage
    8. 2.3.4Dead trees
    9. 2.3.5Dead and badly damaged trees
    10. 2.3.6Trees damaged during wood harvesting
    11. 2.4.1Forest area with severely to very severely damaged stands
    12. 2.4.2Forest area with salvage logging
    13. 2.4.3Stands with a critical stability level
  3. Forest use
    1. 3.1.1Wood increment
    2. 3.1.2Wood increment per hectare
    3. 3.1.3Production and mortality
    4. 3.1.4Proportion of increment for production and mortality
    5. 3.1.5Density of roads accessible by truck
    6. 3.1.6Forest area with silvicultural interventions (past 10 years)
    7. 3.5.1Forest area with an enterprise plan and/or regional forest plan
    8. 3.5.2Forest area with forest enterprise plan (or silvicultural project)
    9. 3.5.3Forest area with regional forest plan
    10. 3.5.4Forest area with certification
  4. Biodiversity
    1. 4.1.1Sample plots with more than one tree species (> 12 cm dbh)
    2. 4.1.2Forest area with 4 or more tree species in the upper layer
    3. 4.1.3Forest edges with more than 10 species of woody plants
    4. 4.1.4Stand density index
    5. 4.2.1Natural regeneration in regeneration stands
    6. 4.2.2Plantings only in regeneration stands
    7. 4.2.3Natural regeneration only in young growth / thickets
    8. 4.3.1Forest area without forestry interventions for more than 50 years
    9. 4.3.2Forest area of plantations
    10. 4.3.3Forest area with near-natural proportion of conifer
    11. 4.3.4Stands with large logs (dbh > 50cm)
    12. 4.3.5Number of giant trees (dbh > 80cm)
    13. 4.3.6Forest edges that are structurally very diverse
    14. 4.3.7Forest area with medium to great value as biotopes
    15. 4.4.1Forest area where exotics are dominant
    16. 4.5.1Stock of deadwood standing and lying
    17. 4.5.2Stock of deadwood standing
    18. 4.9.1Forest area where nature conservation is a priority function
    19. 4.9.2Forest area where landscape or game protection is a priority function
  5. Protection forest
    1. 5.1.1Forest area in groundwater protection zones
    2. 5.1.2Forest area in catchment area of drinking water springs
    3. 5.1.3Pure conifer stands in groundwater protection zones
    4. 5.2.1Forest area where providing protection against natural hazards is a priority function
    5. 5.2.2Protection forest where stand density is sufficient
    6. 5.2.3Protection forest without gaps
    7. 5.2.4Protection forest with stable and less stable stands
    8. 5.2.5Protection forest with more than 10% regeneration
    9. 5.2.6Protection forest with salvage loggings during the past 10 years
    10. 5.2.7Protection forest where the transport distance is up to 500 m
  6. Social economy
    1. 6.1.1Private forest
    2. 6.1.2Forest area of cultivation units up to 3 ha
    3. 6.10.1Forest area with recreation as the priority function
    4. 6.10.2Forest area per capita
    5. 6.10.3Accessible forest area per capita

NFI1–NFI2

1983/85–1993/95

NFI2–NFI3

1993/95–2004/06

NFI3–NFI4b

2004/06–2009/13

Legend

The NFI indicators are grouped according to the 6 European criteria for sustainable forest management. If a positive or negative change in value of an indicator between two inventories is statistically significant, a numerical value of +1 or -1 is given. If the change was not significant a zero is given. If data is missing (in either or both of the inventories compared), the indicator is not considered (no value available). For each criterion the mean of all indicators is calculated. The general trend is calculated as the mean of these criteria trends.