Seminar: Integrating Biodiversity Into Planning: Insights From Swiss Land-Use Plan Revisions

Since land-use decisions are made locally, municipal planning plays a pivotal role in shaping how biodiverse, healthy, and resilient settlement areas are. In Switzerland, municipalities use building and zoning regulations to determine where development occurs and which blue and green areas are preserved. Yet little is known about how biodiversity-friendly standards are negotiated, institutionalized, and translated into binding rules during land-use plan revisions.

This presentation examines how such standards are integrated into municipal regulations, based on a qualitative assessment of six Swiss municipalities. Using document analysis and semi-structured interviews with planners, local politicians, and stakeholders, the study identifies enablers and barriers influencing the uptake of biodiversity-friendly standards. It explores the types of ecological standards adopted—such as the protection of trees, greening measures, and limits on soil sealing—as well as the processes through which they were introduced. 

The findings show that land-use plan revisions function as critical negotiation spaces where biodiversity objectives are balanced against other interests, such as urban development and financial targets. By offering insights into the potential—and limits—of municipal planning as a lever for biodiversity-friendly land-use regulation, the presentation contributes to ongoing discussions in biodiversity governance on mainstreaming biodiversity at the local level.

Stephanie Schwab Cammarano is a political scientist, who explores how human and ecological needs can be better aligned through local planning and sustainability governance. With a strong background in qualitative, policy, and applied research, she investigates how local actors and institutions shape sustainable transformations in urban and rural contexts, focussing on barriers and enablers to environmental transition. After completing her PhD in political communication at the University of Zurich, she worked in policy research and consulting before joining the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape. There, she examines how biodiversity, building culture, and public services can be combined to support resilient and vibrant communities.