Interview with a forest manager
“If you define storms that occur in detail no longer as weather events but as
events, then that is now THE main problem, because of course you have higher harvesting costs, if you have the
windthrow, you have an interlacing on the ground, the substance is…. You have losses, you have breakage.”
Interview with a forestry company
“The impacts that we had this year, for example, are perhaps linked to climate change, the big sanitary problems that we have on certain species such as spruce, bark beetles, the little beast that causes spruce trees to die.”
Interview with a sawyer
“Mild winters: last year was catastrophic. Mild and very wet winters: we had a lot of problems with skidding. There was a blackout for almost three months. All the sawyers had difficulties to take out the wood because the winter was very wet. Instead of being cold and dry, it was very wet, which prevented the machines from entering the forest. If they sink, the guards forbid the entrance. This has caused, in some sawmills, production stoppages, clearly.”
Feedback from companies in the Upper Rhine region: A growing concern for more than 300 companies!
“Employees are less productive when it is too hot.
“If we no longer have water in sufficient quantity and quality, we have to stop production.”
“Since we have storage at the Port of Rhine, if there is a flood between the two sites, access may be cut off.”
“During the heat wave, the air conditioning had broken down in the computer room. If there is no more IT, we shut down the plant!”
Testimonies of companies in mid-mountain resorts
“All the resorts have a different exposure to climatic conditions and there is therefore a great deal of inequality from this point of view. Some are more exposed to to the wind, others more sunny. We have to deal with this and we have always adapted to the vagaries of the weather.”
Testimonies of companies in mid-mountain resorts
“To compensate for the financial loss due to poor winter conditions, we try to compensate with a greater offer of summer activities such as mountain biking, hiking, summer sledding, but this is not necessarily enough to rebalance the financial balance.”
“To adapt we also need to rethink our communication, stay positive and show that the mountain is not necessarily snow, that there are other ways to see our landscapes even in winter and that we have many activities to offer tourists even without snow.”
