During the information event, it was learned that the new version 2.0 of the standard has become more compact and transparent without losing any of its effectiveness. It is now more open and impact-oriented for users. The sustainability of a building is assessed on the basis of 45 criteria covering the topics of economy, society and environment. The criteria are evaluated according to the Swiss school grading system. Above all, the goal was to bring a manageable and affordable instrument to the market that would help steer settlement development in the right direction in the future. The SNBS, including several auxiliary tools, is available free of charge to anyone who wants to build sustainably.

Certification procedure

SGS Société Générale de Surveillance SA will be offering a fee-based certification procedure from August 24 for building owners who want to have their sustainable construction performance confirmed by an independent party. The certification body is already operational in the Zurich branch, Geneva will follow in 2016, and Ticino in 2017. The prerequisite for certification is that at least a grade 4 is achieved in all criteria. Exceptions are only possible in the case of renovations, because optimal solutions cannot always be implemented there due to the quality of the existing substance. The SNBS 2.0 can be certified in the levels Platinum, Gold and Silver. It can be used for new buildings and renovations for residential and office use; mixed uses with, for example, retail on the first floor are also possible.

First certificate awarded

The first SNBS 2.0 certificate was awarded at the event in Bern. It went to the "Twist Again" service building, which Losinger Marazzi AG, as real estate developer and total contractor, realized in the WankdorfCity district of Bern between 2014 and December 2015. The owner of the building is Credit Suisse Real Estate Fund Green Property, a real estate fund of Credit Suisse AG.

For the Kaufmännischer Verband, wage increases of at least 0.5% in all sectors are justified for the coming year, in some cases even up to 1.5%: The Swiss economy has largely recovered from the shock in 2015. The solid quarterly figures of many Swiss companies show that companies have been able to strengthen their competitiveness again thanks to their high adaptability and the flexibility of the labor market. In addition, the euro area is gaining momentum, generating further economic momentum in Switzerland.

Optimized processes

The restructuring processes initiated are showing their effects: The business figures have recovered, also thanks to the enormous commitment of the employees. At the same time, however, numerous employees have lost their jobs. Private consumption remains the mainstay of the Swiss economy.

The major sectors are structurally in good shape again: After a challenging year in 2015, both the retail trade and the MEM industries have bottomed out. The situation has eased and the franc shock has been largely cushioned. The construction industry continues to anticipate a high level of construction activity, particularly in resource-efficient construction with wood. The banking and insurance sectors are holding up well to very well despite the difficult environment, and the pharmaceuticals and chemicals sectors continue to be conspicuously successful. In telecommunications/computer science, software development continues to contribute very positive results.

Wage differentials

Rising prices are expected in 2017. Well-qualified and motivated employees carried the companies through the difficult year 2015. An appropriate wage policy is therefore appropriate after the turbulent previous year.

The wage differences between men and women, which still exist and are in part inexplicable, must now finally be evened out. There is also a need to catch up in the retail, health and education sectors. This must be done in order to retain qualified and motivated employees in these sectors as well.

www.kfmv.ch

According to Gartner, the number of companies relying on the cloud for storage will double by 2018. But that's only part of the story: the cloud is no longer just used for long-term storage or data backup. An increasing number of important applications are being run directly from the cloud. From Salesforce to SAP to Office 365, many important business applications are now cloud-based. These software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications help many companies become more efficient and more customer-centric. However, this often increases the cost of cloud storage and capacity.

The challenge here is to counteract and reduce costs, but at the same time ensure policy-compliant data protection and still provide high-performance cloud storage.

Fortunately, both are possible: added value thanks to important applications in the cloud AND controllable storage costs. So there's no need to panic.

Four tips to get a grip on the situation

Time for a storage diet: Want to minimize the storage requirements of your SaaS applications? Then use file-sharing technology and simply link to the appropriate content on your backup server. This way, you can also map your SaaS content to your managed infrastructure and also meet requirements around data governance, e-discovery, and compliance.

More demanding SLAs: Are you looking for a way to improve the performance of "Service Level Agreements" (SLAs)? You can do that by capturing data changes incrementally. This provides the granularity critical SaaS applications need for speedy recovery. It also gives you additional infrastructure that you can use for your dev/test operations.

Order an "à la carte" menu: When selecting your cloud provider, you should not go by the "in-house recommendation". Here, it is particularly important to minimize the complexity and cost of cloud migrations and operational management. That's why you should work with service providers that support multiple different cloud storage platforms to do this. This gives you the flexibility of an "à la carte" menu, whether you're using Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services S3, Rackspace or one of the myriad other options.

Think like a CFO: IT budgets are limited. If you're under pressure to support more SaaS applications or expand storage size, think like a CFO: choose the offering that gives you the most bang for your buck. With flexible pricing, you can make the purchase to fit - based on the amount of data you need to back up, the number of VMs you need, or the number of users.

These tips come from Commvault, a global leader in information management and enterprise data protection.

The pressure on the Swiss economy and especially on SMEs is increasing. The digital transformation with its effects on market cultivation and communication were the focus of this year's SuisseEMEX. Under the motto "Meet the future", SuisseEMEX presented an eventful 360° spectrum - peppered with red-hot solutions and trends for the marketing and event business of tomorrow.

Top-class speakers

High-profile speakers and personalities shared valuable knowledge on current topics. Prominent speakers included Ruedi Noser, Member of the Council of States and entrepreneur, owner of the Noser Group, Sunnie J. Groeneveld, Managing Director DigitalZurich2025, Jean-Marc Hensch, Managing Director Swico and Marcel Kohler, Member of the Tamedia Executive Board and Head of 20 Minuten, who shared their very personal views on the topic of "Digital Transformation in Marketing & Communication" in the exciting opening round.

Contemporary knowledge transfer

A multifaceted program: Practice-oriented specialist presentations, exciting industry talks, expert consultations, guided tours, special areas such as the EventLab or the special show "Promotional Products Trends" inspired a wide-ranging audience. In 2016, innovative digital tools and gadgets could once again be tried out for themselves in the FutureLab. Networking and knowledge transfer were guaranteed.

For many visitors to this year's topsoft IT trade show, one question was clearly at the forefront: What impact will the digital transformation have on my company? The numerous visitors to the trade fair were correspondingly interested in the possibilities offered by modern IT systems. "At this year's topsoft in particular, it was easy to see that visitors are primarily interested in business value. Technology is increasingly taking a back seat. For the implementation of projects, however, it remains indispensable together with the know-how of the providers," noted exhibition manager Cyrill Schmid in various discussions with exhibitors and visitors.

Business Intelligence and "Paperless World

The fact that Business Intelligence is becoming increasingly important for SMEs was demonstrated by the lively interest of visitors in the presentations and solutions in the "BI Park". The supporting program organized by the consulting firm BARC provided practical application examples and high-level expertise. A special experience was provided by the new "Paperless World" congress, which presented various areas of document management in an informative and entertaining way.

Office technology through the ages

In keeping with the 20th anniversary of topsoft, the special exhibition "Business IT: History meets Future" by Röbi Weiss brought back old memories with numerous exhibits from the past. At the anniversary aperitif, however, the two trade fair managers Marcel Siegenthaler and Cyrill Schmid emphasized that topsoft is clearly looking to the future. As a first step, a new trade fair concept will offer exhibitors and visitors even more opportunities from 2017.

Who's Who in the industry

Once again, the two parallel trade fairs topsoft and SuisseEMEX were able to benefit from synergies and provide visitors with a comprehensive experience of digital opportunities. The fusion of IT technologies with the tasks in marketing are becoming increasingly important. Today, sustainable customer relationships can hardly be separated from topics such as CRM, e-commerce, business intelligence, marketing automation or customer service.

And the pleasures were not neglected either: After the successful premiere in 2015, the EMEX Night on the evening of the first day of the event invited to the industry event of the year. Together with celebrities from the industry, around 1,200 guests experienced a sparkling mix of party and networking after the first day of the trade fair.

Advance notice: Digital Marketing Summit Switzerland for SMEs and SuisseEMEX'17

The next topsoft/SuisseEmex will take place on August 29/30, 2017 at Messe Zürich under the motto "Inspiring Digital Business". Various exhibitors have already decided to participate again and have registered for next year.

In 2017, a Digital Marketing Summit Switzerland for SMEs will be held parallel to SuisseEMEX and topsoft in and around the Zurich Exhibition Center as a knowledge, learning and meeting platform on the focus topics of digitization, leadership and marketing. International and Swiss experts from companies and universities share their knowledge here. The focus is on the participant benefit for a practical knowledge transfer for the digitization of his company. (tb/mm)

www.suisse-emex.ch

www.topsoft.ch

1001 respondents from the Swiss resident population estimate the proportion of loyal employees at 65% and that of loyal employers at 59%. Interestingly, employees see themselves as showing more solidarity with their employer than vice versa. The younger the employees are, the less pronounced is their loyalty to the company. The lower earners see themselves as more loyal than employees with higher incomes. These are the key findings of a representative survey conducted by Demoscope on behalf of Employees Switzerland.

Older and lower earners are more loyal

The perception of one's own loyalty as a private person and at work hardly differs. Loyalty to work colleagues, bosses and customers is slightly greater (71%) than to the company or the products and services one produces or provides (68% and 65% respectively).

Younger employees (15 to 34 years) see themselves as significantly less loyal at work than the older generation. The opposite is true for incomes. Lower earners (gross earnings of up to 5,000 Swiss francs) are more loyal to the company they work for than employees with higher incomes.

The loyalty shown to employees by their employer is rated much lower. Only 48% of the respondents answered with "very loyal" and 42% with "rather loyal". As many as 8% perceive their company as "rather not loyal". The level of agreement is significantly higher among senior and middle managers than among specialists or employees without management functions. - Employees who consider their company to be loyal also behave more loyally themselves.

52% stated that they had spoken ill of their employer in their private lives. Furthermore, 18% admit to having taken material at work for private purposes. 8% work extra slowly at work for long periods of time and 4% cheat on the issue of overtime or timekeeping.

Employers should do more for loyalty

Of the respondents, only a few admit to having committed "disloyal acts" at work. 18% admit to having stolen material for private purposes, 8% to having "cheated" over a longer period of time and 4% to having cheated when recording working hours. However, more than half (52%) confirm having "gossiped" about their employer in their private environment.

The survey reveals that younger employees and specialists (professionals without management functions) in particular are less loyal. "It must be in the interest of companies," says Stefan Studer, managing director of Angestellten Schweiz, "to achieve more loyalty among these two groups." "If you want loyal employees," Studer says, "you have to be loyal to them, because loyalty is the result of an interaction." According to Employees Switzerland, employers can achieve more loyalty by communicating clearly and openly and by valuing employees and their work. Words and euphonious mission statements alone are not enough.

You can find the results of the survey in detail on www.angestellte.ch

Compared with the already high level of the previous year, the business climate in the waste-to-energy sector in Europe has improved once again. However, the gap between operators and equipment suppliers of waste-to-energy plants continues to widen. While among operators the already very good mood from last year has once again increased significantly, the situation of the industry remains difficult.

The operators of waste-to-energy plants assess both their current business situation and future business prospects positively. Almost 80% of them rate the current utilization of their plant as relatively high. Compared to 2015, which was already rated very positively, another 60% of the operators who participated in the survey report increased demand on the spot market. Two thirds were able to stabilize the high utilization of the previous year, and almost one third were even able to increase it once again.

Rising prices expected

For the coming months, 40% of the operators even expect a further improvement in their business situation, only 1% expect worse business. As higher capacity utilization of their own plant is hardly possible in many cases, the positive business expectation is primarily associated with further price increases. Almost 60% of the respondents expect such a price increase.

The situation is different for plant manufacturers in the WtE sector: They consider their current business situation to be poor. More than 50% of the industry representatives surveyed consider their order backlog to be too low, and overall it has fallen for more companies in recent months than it has risen.

Although more than half of the companies do not expect the situation to change in the near future, the number of optimists is still significantly higher than the number of pessimists.

The WtE Industry Barometer 2016 surveys the current business climate in the WtE industry according to a system developed by the IFO Institute. In addition, questions on current developments were examined. For example, operators of thermal waste plants were asked, among other things, about their expectations of the EU's circular economy package, the consequences of Brexit, or company takeovers by companies from China. The technology providers additionally provided information on their assessment of the various market regions worldwide.

The WtE Industry Barometer is conducted by the Cologne-based consulting firm Ecoprog GmbH. The European umbrella organization of operators of thermal waste utilization plants CEWEP (Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants) supports the survey.

The industry barometer is available as a free download at the CEWEP website available.

Source: Ecoprog

Most natural ecosystems are strongly affected by changes in human habitat, climate change or invasive species. For ecology and nature conservation, it is of central importance to assess the state of and changes in biodiversity. To protect ecosystems, one must know the organisms living in them. However, classical methods are often only suitable for identifying a subset of organisms. Moreover, they are expensive, and the organisms themselves must be collected for this purpose.

Recently, the idea has been to collect the DNA of organisms from environmental samples such as soil or water instead, and thus detect the different species. All organisms constantly release DNA into the environment, for example through feces or skin particles. This environmental DNA is sequenced using the latest technology and then matched with databases to determine species. "This novel approach has the potential to revolutionize the study of biodiversity," says Florian Altermatt, Professor at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Sciences at the University of Zurich and the Eawag Water Research Institute.

DNA from mayflies and from beavers 

He and his team at Eawag in Dübendorf recently provided practical proof of this idea. They collected water from the Glatt, a river in Canton Zurich, at various locations and then extracted all the DNA. "We scooped up a liter of water and were then able to extract DNA from an astonishing number of species, from aquatic insects like mayflies to beavers that live further upstream," study coordinator Altermatt explains. DNA from thousands of organisms was compared to traditional estimates of biodiversity. This clarified whether the organisms detected actually live in this environment.

In earlier work, the authors had already shown that rivers transport DNA several kilometers. "This opens up new approaches to obtaining information about the diversity of organisms in river systems," Altermatt says. "We may now soon be able to determine biodiversity in much the same way that water chemistry is measured." The individual water samples contain information not only about aquatic organisms, but about terrestrial organisms that occur along the river. This gave scientists a fingerprint of organisms living throughout the watershed. And they are proving the potential of environmental DNA to determine the biodiversity of everything from aquatic insects to mammals.

Routinely determine biodiversity

The study by UZH researchers shows that rivers, with their unique network structure, collect and transport environmental DNA that contains information about organisms in the water and on the land. Because the process can be automated, biodiversity data could be collected in the future with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. "I could imagine that water samples that are now taken daily or even hourly by cantonal or national authorities for screening chemicals could also be used to record biodiversity," Altermatt speculates.

Burn-out, exhaustion or excessive demands are often used buzzwords in today's performance-oriented society. In the meantime, a great deal of information, recommendations and basic principles for prevention and occupational health management are available. In small companies, however, resources are often limited, which makes it difficult or even impossible to implement the measures. In 2015, the Artisana association launched a practice-oriented research project with the study "What's wrong with Max Muster?" written by the University of Bern and the BASS office, in which the handling of mentally ill employees in small companies was examined. The most important results of the project are now presented in a video trailer.

Max Muster becomes Youtube star

Every second person suffers from a mental illness at least once in their adult life. The reasons for this are complex. It can affect anyone and everyone, regardless of occupation and position. In Artisana's new video trailer, the consequences of mental health problems in the workplace are illustrated using three impressive examples. The viewer sees Max Muster suffer, learns what is going on in his head. What his supervisor thinks of the situation also comes up clearly. While things like physical ailments, pain, depression, divorce or financial difficulties make life hell for the employee and make normal work impossible, the supervisor wonders about the sudden changes in his employee. It quickly becomes clear: action is needed here. In the case of all three protagonists, the story has a different outcome because each supervisor dealt with the situation differently. Whether construction, industry or gastronomy: the examples show that the issue affects every industry.

Small businesses at an advantage: close, flexible and versatile

With the video, Artisana wants to raise awareness for the important topic and draw attention to the possibilities and opportunities for small businesses. The three case studies in the trailer are based on real-life situations. They show that stress, mental strain and problems are everywhere, even in industries where they are still rarely talked about. It is important that company managers respond to such incidents. The examples also show that small companies do have advantages when it comes to dealing with their employees' problems: They are close to their employees, flexible and can react quickly.

Associations as important ambassadors of this information

Industry and trade associations can be important mediators of this message. In addition to distributing the video trailer, the Artisana association is therefore launching a lecture offer for industry and trade associations. Under the title "Dealing with stress and psychological problems in small businesses", the results of the study will be presented, case studies will be explained, and the strengths and weaknesses of small businesses will be addressed. Time and place will be determined by the association, the costs will be covered by the Artisana association.

Information on the range of presentations for industry and trade associations can be found at: www.artisana.ch

The video trailer shows examples from three industries

According to a new study by Regus, the flexible workspace solutions provider, it matters a great deal to employees everywhere that their employer is committed to community service and has a CSR social responsibility strategy. Participants in the study report that given two comparable job offers, they would give preference to the employer whose company has a proven track record of community involvement and giving back to society.

Companies better positioned with CSR strategy

For around half (46 percent) of the total of around 237 respondents, it is important that their employer is active in the non-profit sector. For many, the company's social responsibility is even a decision criterion for choosing where to work. A remarkable 42 percent say that given two comparable job offers, they would give preference to the employer that is more socially committed. Companies with a proven commitment to the community are therefore better positioned to attract and retain top employees.

Key findings of the study

As the study found, one-third of respondents want to get directly involved in their company's charitable programs. 19 percent would like better information. 28 percent of respondents appreciate CSR initiatives, but for 19 percent, information about them is inadequate. In turn, 10 percent would like better information about other teams' charitable activities and CSR initiatives. One-third of respondents believe companies in their industry should be more involved in CSR (27 percent) or charitable giving (31 percent).

Involve employees in charitable projects

Says a Regus spokesperson, "Today's employees are not driven by selfishness when they clearly express that they prefer to work for a company with a proven track record of social commitment. Involvement in charitable projects and initiatives creates a positive image of a responsible organization and also helps employees feel proud of their employer." Companies need to pick up on this willingness to engage socially and ensure that employees are aware of their charitable initiatives and CSR projects, Regus adds. In addition, workers must be given the opportunity to participate directly. Employees who are aware of their employer's philanthropic activities feel more fulfillment and motivation in their work. Moreover, charitable initiatives offer management and employees the chance to work together for a good cause.

Source: Regus

For Swiss startups, China, as the second largest economy in the world, is a lucrative market. Therefore, since 2014, the venture leaders program has been pursuing the goal of intensively exploiting the growing market opportunities for Swiss startups as well as increasing the visibility for their high-tech innovations. For the third time, ten innovative young companies won the business development trip to China's most important centers: In addition to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, the important economic and financial center Hong Kong is on the startups' itinerary for the first time in 2016.

"In China, there is a market for every startup".

The products and services of this year's finalists represent an enormous range of Swiss innovations: Nanotechnologies and Big Data are represented as well as applications for sustainable agriculture as well as cleantech and smart home innovations. "The aim of the venture leaders program is to showcase the diversity and quality of Swiss high-tech innovations on an international level. The program also shows the enormous interest of these startups for globally emerging markets like China," explains Jordi Montserrat, Managing Director of venturelab in French-speaking Switzerland. And swissnex China CEO, Pascal Marmier, adds: "China has a fast-growing and innovation-oriented economy. However, the market is highly competitive and the rules of the game are often vastly different from what people are used to in their home markets. For this reason, Swiss startups need to be on the ground to get to know the Chinese business culture better and to be able to build sustainable relationships with local experts, companies and investors. Theoretically, there is a market in China for every startup, you just have to know how to conquer it." The successes of alumni of the venture leaders program, such as the team of ETH spin-off greenTEG, which last year won four Chinese distribution partners for its revolutionary energy solutions, show that the trip to China is worthwhile.

The venture leaders China 2016

• Luc Gervais, 1Drop Diagnostics - Medtech (www.1dropdx.com), Neuchâtel (EPFL-IMT). The Neuchâtel-based young entrepreneurs of 1Drop Diagnostics want to increase access to optimal healthcare and offer easy-to-use laboratory-quality medical diagnostics. Initial clinical applications may cover cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases and iron stores assessment.
• Serguei Okhonin, ActLight SA - Cleantech, Energy (www.act-light.com), Lausanne (EPFL). For the next generation of mobile devices to be ready for the Internet of Things, they must enable features such as increased data transfer rates while consuming less energy. To meet these challenges, ActLight is developing a revolutionary technology platform.
• Pascal Koenig, Ava AG - Medtech (www.avawomen.com), Zurich. For about a third of couples, the wish for a child does not come true simply because the timing is not right. Ava helps them. A bracelet measures all the parameters at night that predict ovulation with certainty, making family planning easier. Compared to other methods, Ava's solution is more precise and much easier to use.
• Marc Gitzinger, BioVersys AG - Biotech (www.bioversys.com), Basel (ETH). BioVersys researches and develops chemical molecules that reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics. The Swiss biopharma company's work addresses the high medical need for new drugs that can fight life-threatening bacterial infections despite the emergence of resistance, such as tuberculosis and hospital infections.
• Olga Peters, QualySense AG - Electronics, Robotics (www.qualysense.com), Glattbrugg. The EMPA spin-off QualySense develops and markets innovative sorting devices for quality control in the food industry. The unique and patented devices control and sort grains and beans according to biochemical and visual quality characteristics at breathtaking speed.
• Veronica Savu, Morphotonix Sàrl - Micro-nano (www.morphotonix.com), Lausanne (EPFL). EPFL spin-off Morphotonix protects brands against counterfeiting by directly integrating security elements into plastic molds that are free of additives.
• Sandra Neumann, Peripal AG - Medtech (www.peripal.com), Zurich. In home dialysis, the most difficult operation is connecting the dialysis machine to the bloodstream due to the risk of infection. Zurich-based startup Peripal solves this problem with a device that provides access to the blood vessels mechanically and in a sterile environment. This simplifies therapy enormously, significantly reducing training time for patients and caregivers.
• Felix Adamczyk, Smart Home Technology GmbH - Hardware, Software (www.smart-home-technology.ch), Zurich (ETH). The ETH spin-off Smart Home Technology develops innovative and energy-efficient applications in the private and industrial sectors. These include extremely energy-saving and secure communication solutions as well as the business solution Smart@Home® for sensor-based data acquisition in real time.
• Duncan Sutherland, TwentyGreen AG - Biotech (www.twentygreen.com), Lucerne (EPFL). Today's livestock practices are unsustainable and the growing global demand for protein poses an enormous challenge to our society. For sustainable animal husbandry, TwentyGreen produces a new probiotic feed supplement that has several positive effects.
• Staffan Ahlgren, Tyre Recycling Solutions SA (TRS) - Cleantech (www.trs-ch.com), Gland (EPFL). Every year, half a million car tires are disposed of worldwide and only half of them are recycled. EPFL spin-off Tyre Recycling Solutions, aims to revolutionize tire recycling with an innovative process: On the one hand, their technology can recover the metal present in old tires and, on the other, produce a high-quality powder from the tires that can be used cost-effectively for a wide range of production processes.

Partner of the venture leaders China program

The trip, including a business development program worth 10,000 Swiss francs each, was made possible by long-term partners EPFL Innovation Park, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Gebert Rüf Foundation, Canton de Vaud, Standortförderung - Amt für Wirtschaft und Arbeit Kanton Zürich, Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst&Young and swissnex China.

www.venturelab.ch

Transport in Switzerland consumes around 38% of the total final energy. Of this, 87% is at the expense of roads; only just under 5% is spent by rail.

The performance of the two modes of transport is comparable: the modal split between road and rail is 76 to 24% for passenger transport and 61 to 39% for freight transport.

This is shown by the analysis of public transport figures recently published by the public transport information service Litra.

Overall, traffic is still growing rapidly: in 2014, a total of 124,656 million kilometers were driven in Switzerland - in passenger traffic alone. In the previous year, the figure was 2,000 million kilometers less, and in 2000, almost 20,000 million kilometers less. Since 1950, transport performance has thus increased almost tenfold: at that time, only 14,798 million kilometers were traveled - 57% of which, incidentally, were by public transport.

The motion Engler "Coexistence of wolf and mountain population", adopted by parliament in 2015, demands a revision of the hunting law so that in the future wolf populations can be regulated within the framework of the Bern Convention.

In implementation of this motion, regulatory interventions in populations of not only the wolf but also other conflict-prone protected species should be possible in the future if, despite reasonable preventive measures, the occurrence of major damage or the concrete endangerment of humans is imminent.

Clarification of hunting authorization and examination

The revised law also aims to clarify the relationship between hunting permits and hunting examinations. The hunting license enables hunting to be practiced in a canton; its issuance remains the responsibility of the cantons. A prerequisite for this in all cantons is a successful hunting examination, for which the federal government will in future specify the examination areas of species and habitat protection, animal protection and handling of weapons, including marksmanship. These cantonal hunting examinations, which are standardized in terms of content, are to be mutually recognized by the cantons in the future.

Huntable species and closed seasons adapted

Finally, the provisions on huntable species and their closed seasons, which were amended in 2012 with a revision of the Hunting Ordinance, will be transferred to the law and supplemented: the moor duck, the partridge and the great crested grebe will now be protected in the law.

It also seeks to declare the rook huntable, shorten the closed seasons of the wild boar and cormorant, and grant closed seasons to all native species.

The handling of non-native species is also to be newly regulated. For example, fallow deer, sika and mouflon, which were previously granted a closed season, are to be huntable all year round in future, based on the strategy for combating invasive alien species adopted by the Federal Council on May 18, 2016.

The Federal Council opened the consultation on the revised Hunting Act on August 24, 2016. It will last until November 30, 2016.

Source: Confederation