Retirement

Abandoned alp in Val Grande

The Swiss term Vergandung describes the encroachment of cultural landscapes .

Retirement process

The mountainous area was before the colonization one to the treeline wooded countryside. With the alpine farming, the settlers transformed the alpine natural landscape into a cultural landscape ( common land ) with fields and pastures. By deforestation were agricultural land created and set the tree line down. In doing so, ecosystems with a high level of biodiversity were created through adapted systems of pasture and mowing use .

This cultural landscape needs careful maintenance: the pastures are mowed or grazed by cattle and naturally fertilized. Bushes and plants unsuitable for livestock are removed in early summer. Stones are removed from the fields and pastures and deposited on the field as reading stones . Sticks are also picked up and placed there. Paths, alpine roads, water catchment channels and irrigation systems ( suonen ), terraces, avalanche, ridge and brook barriers are created and maintained. Landscape damage caused by erosion is repaired.

With the abandonment of grazing animals , the rural exodus and the abandonment of entire valleys, the number of mountain farmers and thus the management of the Alps is falling. As a result, the former pastures are overgrowing (blackening, shrubbery, forest cover) and the forest withered: the Alps perished. A secondary natural landscape emerges with the forestation of small-scale usable areas and impassable parcels, the abandonment of small parcels (inheritance) and the selection of uses according to the slope. Due to the underuse, meadows and pastures are blackened. The Blacke is used as a retirement indicator.

If protective structures ( torrent control , avalanche control ) are no longer maintained in abandoned valleys, natural disasters ( debris flows , dam bursts , avalanches , etc.) can occur with effects down to the valley floor and on transit axes there. An example of the effects of debris flows is the Bondo landslide .

Causes of the retirement

Haute-Nendaz, mass tourism

The causes that lead to the abandonment of the cultivation of the usable areas and ultimately to the de-aging are manifold, complex and multi-causal: Up to the end of the 18th century there were climate changes , the deterioration of agriculturally used soils, natural disasters (earthquakes, avalanches, debris flows, landslides in Piuro and Onoldswil etc.) are the main causes of abandonment of settlements and valleys. Since the early 19th century there has been a migration mainly from the Alpine region (Ticino, Graubünden, Valais) to industrial centers and overseas. The decline of traditional forms of livestock leads to the abandonment of Alpstäfel and mountain pastures .

The general problem of agriculture in the mountain area is the high workload with a lot of manual labor and long unproductive transports under difficult natural and economic conditions. The low income leads to a strong dependency on direct payments from the federal government. The inadequate transport links, the insufficient infrastructure and the inhospitable climate (long winter) also lead to emigration.

Mass tourism (holiday apartments, hotels) is displacing agriculture from the new leisure area (example Haute-Nendaz ). Political advances from business circles ( Avenir Suisse , Hotelleriesuisse , New Regional Policy ( NRP), etc.) demand that entire mountain valleys, because they are unprofitable (“areas with little potential”), should be left to their own devices. One should limit oneself to a few alpine conurbations, which could then be upgraded with federal funding.

Where the mountain communities do not have any jobs in industry or service (hotel, non-hotel business), migration is particularly high. The regulations issued by the EU and WTO with the preference for industrial agriculture are among the external influences that lead to a general decline in the agricultural sector in the mountainous area as a peripheral area. The shift of management contributions to the large companies, less financial support and the abolition of infrastructure contributions ( Investment Aid Act IHG) make it more difficult for the mountain communities to carry out their infrastructural tasks.

Since 2015, the spread of large carnivores, in particular the wolf, has caused additional, cost-intensive problems for grazing animals and alpine farming (killed livestock, permanent care, herding dogs , technical herd protection, herd guard dogs , etc.), the effects on gentle tourism (hiking trails through Pasture area, etc.). In France, the return of the wolf has serious consequences because the wolf has learned to undermine herd protection measures.

Influence on biodiversity

The ganding leads to a decline in the diversity of species and biodiversity , as the three different areas of pasture, rain and forest ultimately become one : the bushes or the gand. Individual Swiss municipalities have issued regulations to curb the ganding. In April 2019, Swiss Heritage Protection launched the Swiss Federal Popular Initiative "For the future of our nature and landscape (biodiversity initiative)" with the Foundation for Landscape Protection Switzerland , BirdLife Switzerland and Pro Natura .

Areas with retirement

Indemini 1928

Indemini 2007

Around 36 percent of the land area of Switzerland (as of 2009) can be used for agriculture, the alpine farming areas make up a good third of all agricultural areas. The mountain population is dependent on agriculture, which is mostly coupled with a sideline. Above a certain altitude, only grazing animals and no arable farming is possible.

From 1985 to 2009, 5.5 percent of the agricultural area was lost in favor of settlement construction and forestry / deforestation. In Graubünden and Ticino, the expansion of the forest is largely responsible for the decrease in agricultural land due to the abandonment of agricultural use.

The process of de-aging has been documented in Goms ( Münster VS , Upper Valais ) since the second half of the 20th century. In the canton of Valais, the degradation process of the old cultivated land areas is stronger than in Graubünden because of the small parcels (real division in inheritance law).

In Ticino, there are numerous places with Vergandung due to emigration ( Calancatal , Muggiotal , Indemini , etc.). The Ticino mountain village of Indemini is an example of the changed landscape due to forestry.

In Italy there are wilderness areas that are difficult to penetrate in the Val Grande National Park , in the former Walser community of Rimella and in the Mastallone Valley .

Measures against the retirement

Corippo

The federal government has strong instruments to protect the forest, the protection of agricultural land (sectoral plan for crop rotation areas for long-term food security) is assessed by the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) as too weak because the affected areas can be converted into building land. The agricultural advisory center Agridea mediates between science and the farm to promote biodiversity in Swiss agriculture.

The non-profit Swiss sponsorship for mountain communities , the Swiss Mountain Aid and the Swiss Working Group for Mountain Regions (SAB) are committed to improving the living conditions and development opportunities for the population in the mountain regions.

The conversion of vacant alpine buildings ( Rustici etc.) to second homes slows their decay and promotes gentle tourism. In the smallest municipality in Switzerland, the Corippo Foundation is trying to stop the migration by renovating empty houses all over the village for renting as holiday homes.

In the Val Bavona of Ticino , the Fondazione Valle Bavona Foundation looks after the preservation of the cultural, natural and scenic heritage. She concludes management contracts with the owners of the land so that the bushy land is converted back into meadows and regularly mowed.

Since 2013, cantonal and regional associations and the nationwide umbrella organization Lebensraum Schweiz without large carnivores have been founded in Switzerland as a citizens' initiative by affected sheep, goat breeders, alpine and organic farmers and valley farmers with summer pastures because they fear that the unchecked advance of large carnivores will give them theirs Livelihood is deprived and they would have to leave their living space. The Cantonal Parliament of Valais has approved a postulate that should enable all hunters to take part in an approved wolf kill. Hunting wolves is allowed in Scandinavia. This means that the wolf population can be kept stable.

The partial revision of the Federal Act on Hunting and Protection of Wild Mammals and Birds was approved by the National Council and Council of States on September 27, 2019. Protected animals may be shot to regulate the population. Due to the coronavirus , the referendum scheduled for May 17, 2020 on the referendum held by environmental and animal welfare associations was canceled.

literature

Swiss Landscape Protection Foundation: Catalog of the characteristic cultural landscapes of Switzerland , July 2014, [4] accessed on April 4, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Vergandung - collection of images, videos and audio files

Vergandung , in: Das Großes Zermattlexikon

Individual evidence

^ [1] Entry in Duden , accessed on January 8, 2013

↑ Axel Paulsch, Cornelia Dziedzioch, Thomas Plän: Implementation of the ecosystem approach in high mountains in Germany: Experiences with the Alpine Convention BfN-Skripten 85, 2003, pages 27–28

↑ [2] Roland Wyss-Aerni: Verganded, wooded - bad, beautiful? , accessed March 26, 2019

↑ Tages-Anzeiger of July 28, 2016: In the Swiss Badlands. Leave remote mountain valleys to their own devices? Not a bad idea.

↑ Veranda in the mountain area using the example of Goms (VS) (PDF; 12.3 MB)

↑ Farmer's newspaper of April 5, 2019: Wolves reduce the income of the alpine farmers

↑ 1815.ch Valais dated March 7, 2016: Sheep alpinism: Burger Alps Törbel and Bürchen are abandoned. Moosalp shepherds capitulate to the wolf

↑ The Serious Consequences of the Return of the Wolf in France

↑ Swiss Radio and Television SRF of October 1, 2013: Species diversity in the Swiss Alps is falling

↑ [3] Regulations to prevent the municipality of Staldenried from ganding up from March 11, 1984, accessed on March 26, 2019

↑ Axel Paulsch, Cornelia Dziedzioch, Thomas Plän: Implementation of the ecosystem approach in high mountains in Germany: Experiences with the Alpine Convention BfN-Skripten 85, 2003, pages 27–28