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In 1999, an international expert team found the neglect of biodiversity issues in Swiss forest policy to be one of its biggest weaknesses. Influenced by this scientific assessment, the Federal Forest Agency developed forest reserve guidelines with measurable objectives in cooperation with the constituent states (cantons). To assess the outcomes of the Swiss forest reserve concept, we surveyed cantons’ implementation degree in 2011. In a previous paper, Kaeser et al. (For Policy Econ 3:6–13, 2013) discussed the survey’s results from the perspective of new forms of governance in Swiss biodiversity policy. However, the use of different governance approaches could only partly account for the differences between the cantons’ forest reserve areas. As a continuation of this study, the present paper contributes to the discussion about the influencing factors on the implementation of forest reserves in Swiss cantons. For this purpose, we examine the effect of institutional drivers, public policies, property rights and user conflicts in 22 Swiss cantons on their forest reserve areas by using a multiple regression. The effect of financial conditions and the share of protective forest of the cantons on forest reserves is statistically significant. The findings indicate that the potential for forest reserves in protective forests in the mountains has been neglected so far. A combination of forest reserves and protective forests could result in a win–win-situation of ‘less effort for the management of protective forest’ and ‘more biodiversity’.
