Wild camping in Canton Jura

Jura regulates camping the way it protects its landscapes: pond by pond, river bank by river bank. There is no general rule, the word bivouac appears nowhere in the cantonal collection, and the newest norm in this whole series is here: the La Gruère decree, in force since February 2025.

No general rule, two reserves with teeth. No Jura act bans camping outside campsites in general, and a tent outside a campsite needs no permit under planning law until it stands two months in the same place.1 The 2024 La Gruère decree bans camping "sous toutes ses formes", tents and other shelters included, across the reserve and its adjacent landscape zone, with fires and stoves, sanctioned up to CHF 20,000.2 The Doubs reserve of 1980 carries the same clause and the canton's only camping fixed fine: CHF 100, collectable on the spot.3

La Gruère: the newest camping norm in Switzerland

The moor pond of La Gruère got a new decree on 8 October 2024, in force since 1 February 2025, replacing its 1980 predecessor. Its Art. 6 bans, in the reserve, "de camper sous toutes ses formes, de dresser des tentes ou autres abris", camping in all its forms, pitching tents or other shelters, along with fires and stoves, and its Art. 25 repeats the camping ban across the adjacent landscape protection zone, which spans the whole mire landscape of national importance.2 "Sous toutes ses formes" is drafting that reaches the bivouac without naming it.

The sanction is the asymmetry worth knowing: La Gruère has no fixed fine, so a breach runs through ordinary proceedings under the nature protection act, up to CHF 20,000.2 Anything published before 2025 cites the abrogated 1980 decree. Where Jura sits nationally: our canton comparison.

The Doubs, the ponds, and the CHF 100

The Doubs banks along the whole Jura stretch are a state reserve since 1980, and its Art. 3 bans camping, pitching tents or other shelters, and parking caravans. This is the one place the canton pre-priced: since 2023 the fixed-fine ordinance carries camping in the Doubs reserve at CHF 100, collectable on the spot, also by environmental surveillance staff.3 The 1980 pond decrees, Bolleman, Lucelle, Plain de Saigne, Les Royes, Le Cerneux, carry the identical camping clause, and the 2025 decree for the Chaux-des-Breuleux bog uses the modern La Gruère template.4

Outside the reserves, the Franches-Montagnes plateaus are farmed commons and forest where no cantonal norm reaches a considerate single night, and the owner is the person to ask. The federal layer applies where mapped.5 How to check the perimeters: our protected areas article.

Tent or bivouac: covered by drafting, not by name

The word bivouac appears nowhere in the Jura collection, and the modern decrees did not need it: camping "in all its forms" plus "other shelters" reaches the tarp and arguably the bag. Outside the reserves neither is regulated, and the two-month planning threshold confirms the single night sits below permit law. The full verb logic is in When is a bivouac a bivouac.

How it plays out

No researched spot lies in canton Jura yet. The nearest researched ground is the same chain, at its Bernese end.

  • ChasseralReport

    The same Jura logic at the chain's other end: the decisive layer is not the one that looks decisive, and the commune settles it. In canton Jura, substitute the reserve decree for the commune and the reading holds.

Somewhere in Canton Jura?

Put it into the wild camping check. In this canton the answer is whether a reserve decree reaches your pitch, and reading the right one, in its current version, is what the spot reports do.

Is wild camping banned in Canton Jura?
Not generally. It is banned in the nature reserves: at La Gruère in all its forms across the reserve and its landscape zone since February 2025, along the Doubs since 1980, and at the protected ponds. Outside those perimeters no cantonal norm reaches a considerate single night, and the landowner decides.
What does wild camping cost in Canton Jura?
At the Doubs reserve CHF 100 as an on-the-spot fixed fine, the canton's only one for camping. At La Gruère there is no fixed fine, so the exposure is the ordinary procedure under the nature protection act, up to CHF 20,000. Inside federal perimeters, CHF 150 under federal law.
Did the La Gruère rules change recently?
Yes: a new decree of 8 October 2024, in force since 1 February 2025, replaced the 1980 one. It bans camping in all its forms, tents and other shelters, and fires and stoves, in the reserve and the adjacent landscape zone. Sources published before 2025 cite the abrogated decree.

Sources

  1. République et Canton du Jura, RSJU: no act generally prohibits camping outside campsites; "bivouac" and "bivouaquer" return zero hits across the whole collection. Décret concernant le permis de construire (DPC, RSJU 701.51), Art. 4 al. 2 let. a: a building permit is needed for tents outside an authorized campsite only when installed at the same place for more than two months per calendar year. rsju.jura.ch. ↩
  2. Arrêté relatif à la réserve naturelle de La Gruère et à la zone de protection paysagère adjacente du 8 octobre 2024 (RSJU 451.322, in force since 1 February 2025), Art. 6: "il est interdit: ... j) de camper sous toutes ses formes, de dresser des tentes ou autres abris; k) d'allumer des feux et d'utiliser des réchauds;" Art. 25 repeats the camping ban for the landscape zone. Sanction: Art. 31 in connection with LPNP (RSJU 451) Art. 70: fine up to 20,000 francs. The decree abrogated the arrêté of 5 February 1980. rsju.jura.ch. ↩
  3. Arrêté mettant le Doubs et ses environs immédiats situés en territoire jurassien sous la protection de l'Etat du 5 février 1980 (RSJU 451.311), Art. 3: "Dans la réserve, toute modification de l'état naturel est interdite, en particulier: ... c) camper, dresser des tentes ou autres abris, faire stationner des roulottes ou des caravanes ..." Fixed fine: Ordonnance portant exécution de la LiLAO (OLiLAO, RSJU 324.111), Annexe 2, item 1.6 (in force since 1 June 2023): Fr. 100, collectable also by environmental surveillance staff. rsju.jura.ch. ↩
  4. The pond decrees of 5 February 1980 (RSJU 451.321 Bolleman, 451.323 Lucelle, 451.324 Plain de Saigne, 451.325 Les Royes, 451.341 Le Cerneux) carry the identical Art. 3 camping clause; the arrêté for the tourbière de La Chaux-des-Breuleux of 28 January 2025 (RSJU 451.331) uses the modern La Gruère template. rsju.jura.ch. ↩
  5. Ordonnance sur les amendes d'ordre (OAO, RS 314.11), annexe 2, ch. 12005: camper librement dans un district franc fédéral, CHF 150; ch. 12003 zones de tranquillité, même montant. Ordonnance concernant les districts francs fédéraux (ODF, RS 922.31), art. 5 al. 1 let. e. fedlex.admin.ch. ↩