The Swiss Tree Inspection Guideline: What Applies Since 2026
Since 1 January 2026, Switzerland has had its first joint tree-inspection guideline, issued by Baumpflege Schweiz (BSB), JardinSuisse, and the Association of Swiss Municipal Gardens (VSSG), reviewed by legal counsel and available for purchase, personalised, for CHF 45. Before that, only a VSSG information sheet existed, which explicitly described itself as "deliberately not a set of rules" and adopted German FLL intervals.
- In force since
- 01.01.2026
- Issuing associations
- BSB, JardinSuisse, VSSG
- Licence price
- CHF 45 (personalised)
- Swiss SIA standard on the topic
- does not exist
- INTERLIS data model for tree registers
- does not exist
What is new
The guideline is the first independent, cross-association Swiss technical basis for tree inspection — no longer a translation of, or adaptation to, foreign standards. Among other things, it defines inspection intervals, qualification requirements, and documentation duties for inspecting bodies.
What it explicitly is not
There is still no Swiss SIA standard on tree inspection, no official INTERLIS data model for a tree register, and no relevant supreme-court case law that is based directly on this guideline (the leading case law on the duty to ensure traffic safety — in particular BGer 4A_114/2014 — predates it and concerned general standards of care, not this specific guideline).
Distinction from the German FLL
The German FLL tree-inspection guideline (2020, VTA methodology) remains the better-known reference framework in the German-speaking world and was, in practice, also used in Switzerland before 2026. The new Swiss guideline follows similar professional principles but is an independent document with its own scope of application for Switzerland — equating it with "FLL-certified" would be inaccurate.
For your business
Anyone offering tree inspections should align their own approach with the new guideline and make this traceable in their documentation — "aligned with the Swiss tree-inspection guideline" is the correct wording, not "certified" or "compliant", as long as no official certification body exists.
For the commissioning authority
A tender can now, for the first time, refer to a genuine Swiss technical basis instead of a German set of rules.
What this does not mean
- The guideline is a private association document, not a legal norm — it can be used by a court as a standard of care when assessing a case, but it does not replace a statutory basis.
- There is no software certification against this guideline — neither from BSB/JardinSuisse/VSSG nor from the German FLL. A claim such as "guideline-compliant software" is therefore not substantiable.
- The licence terms of the CHF 45 document (personalised, no publicly viewable terms of use) do not permit 1:1 redistribution of its content.
Frequently asked questions
- Is there an SIA standard for tree inspection in Switzerland?
- No, as of the date of this page no SIA standard exists on this topic — the tree-inspection guideline is an association document, not an SIA standard.
- Is the Swiss tree-inspection guideline the same as the German FLL guideline?
- No. Both address similar professional questions but are independent documents from different issuers with different scopes of application.