Swiss voters rejected proposals to strengthen biodiversity protection and pension reform in two referendums held on Sunday, according to estimated results.
Switzerland may have an image of pristine natural landscapes, but environmentalists have sounded the alarm about endangered ecosystems and urged voters to support more widespread biodiversity protection.
But the proposal was rejected with just 37% of voters voting in favour, and a turnout of 45.2%, according to provisional results released by federal authorities around 14:30 GMT on Sunday.
Voters also rejected plans to financially reform the wealthy Alpine country’s pension system, according to the results.
The original proposal had the backing of many environmental organisations, including Pro Natura and BirdLife.
They warned that Swiss biodiversity is “in decline”.
“Switzerland has one of the highest rates of threatened species and environments among European OECD countries,” Pro Natura director Sarah Pearson-Perrett told AFP, citing the European Environment Agency report.
The study, published in 2020, showed that Switzerland has a lower proportion of protected land area than any other European country.
Only the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Geneva supported the proposal.
The Swiss Arts and Crafts Union expressed “relief” that the proposal was rejected, and praised voters’ “foresight”.
The committee argued that if the reforms had been passed, electricity and food production could have been endangered.
The country’s main right-wing UDC party said it “hopes that moral environmentalists will enable Swiss farmers to carry out their valuable work in peace.”
However, Switzerland’s Green Liberal Party deemed the result a “missed opportunity to protect natural heritage that is essential for quality of life and the economy”.
The Swiss federal government currently invests around 600 million Swiss francs per year in biodiversity conservation.
The groups that led Sunday’s referendum said that wasn’t enough.
They were calling on voters to approve an increase in the biodiversity budget and an expansion of the number of protected areas.
The landmark biodiversity agreement reached in Montreal in 2022 calls for protecting at least 30% of the Earth’s land and oceans by 2030.
But last year the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment said that only 13.4 percent of the country’s Alpine land area was dedicated to biodiversity conservation.
FOEN acknowledges that biodiversity protection in Switzerland is insufficient, with half of its natural habitats and a third of its natural spaces under threat.
Aquatic environments and wetlands are among the most threatened.
Groups supporting the referendum described the situation as “alarming”, stressing that “the mass extinction of species has direct implications for our humanity”.
Both the government and parliament opposed the proposal, arguing that Switzerland already had enough in place and warning that the measures would have severe effects on the economy, agriculture, construction and energy production.
Swiss voters also rejected government-backed reforms to pension finances on Sunday, according to forecasts.
Federal officials reported that 67.1% of voters opposed the vote, with prevailing no votes in every state, and turnout at 45%.
Swiss pensions are split into three pillars: the basic pension, compulsory pension funds to which employers and employees must pay, and voluntary top-up contributions to private funds and investments.
The government says falling financial market returns and rising life expectancy have left the second pillar underfunded.
The reform proposed by Bern would require employers and employees to increase their contributions to mandatory occupational funds.
But trade unions, who called for a referendum on the reforms, criticised them, saying they would force people to pay more while reducing their pension payments.
The Swiss Trade Union Confederation, which represents 20 trade unions, denounced the proposal as a “fraud”.
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