Wild camping in Canton Zurich

Zurich law never says campieren; it says Kampieren, with a K, and it says it only inside protection ordinances. There is no general cantonal rule at all. What there is: an enabling clause, some two hundred protection ordinances that use it, and a CHF 50,000 fine frame standing behind them.

No general rule, ordinance by ordinance instead. The police act, the penal introduction act, the planning act, the forest act and the water act contain no camping provision, and the word Biwak appears nowhere in Zurich law.1 The cantonal nature protection ordinance empowers protection orders to ban "das Lagern, Zelten und Kampieren", and the big lake ordinances do: Greifensee and Pfäffikersee outlaw all three in their protection zones.2 Behind them stands the planning act's fine frame of up to CHF 50,000.3

How Zurich regulates without a ban

The mechanism is an empowerment: the cantonal nature and heritage protection ordinance lists, among the prohibitions a protection order may impose, "das Lagern, Zelten und Kampieren sowie das Überlassen von Standplätzen für diesen Zweck", resting, tenting and camping and the letting of pitches for it.1 Some two hundred protection ordinances exist, most of them decreed outside the law collection, and the important ones use the clause verbatim: the Greifensee ordinance of 1994 bans fires, Lagern, Zelten and Kampieren in its nature zones, the Pfäffikersee ordinance of 1999 the same.2

The penalty behind a protection ordinance is the planning act: intentional breaches up to CHF 50,000, negligent ones up to 5,000.3 And a detail that surprises: the cantonal fixed-penalty catalogue contains no camping item at all, so enforcement runs by report and penal order, not by an on-the-spot tariff.1 Where Zurich sits nationally: our canton comparison.

City ground, private ground, and a friendly relic

The city of Zurich requires a permit for camping in tents, caravans and the like on public ground outside designated places, a permit regime rather than a total ban.4 The other 160 communes have their own police ordinances; treat settled ground as commune-by-commune.

On private ground the canton is friendlier than its reputation: the hygiene law makes even paid tent pitches permit-free up to three tents or ten people, a relic that quietly confirms the default. The rural night with the landowner's yes has no cantonal norm against it, outside the protected perimeters. The federal layer applies as everywhere.5 How to check the perimeters: our protected areas article.

Tent or bivouac: Lagern closes the gap

Where a Zurich protection ordinance applies, its triple verb decides the bivouac question the strict way: Lagern covers the night without a tent. Outside the ordinances, no cantonal norm names either. Biwak as a word does not exist in Zurich law, which tells you the drafters never needed it: the enabling clause was written wide from the start. The full verb logic is in When is a bivouac a bivouac.

How it plays out

No researched spot lies in Zurich yet. The nearest researched ground sits where the Sihl rises, one canton south.

  • SihlseeliReport

    At the source region of the river that ends in Zurich: a small lake at 1,825 m in Schwyz, checked as a verified absence across all three layers.

Somewhere in Canton Zurich?

Put it into the wild camping check. In this canton the answer is the protection ordinance or the commune, and finding the right one among two hundred is exactly what the spot reports do.

Is wild camping banned in Canton Zurich?
Not generally. No cantonal act bans camping as conduct. Protection ordinances ban Lagern, Zelten und Kampieren inside their zones, the city of Zurich requires a permit on public ground, and communes have their own rules. Outside those perimeters, the landowner's consent is the operative question.
What does wild camping cost in Canton Zurich?
There is no fixed penalty: the cantonal catalogue has no camping item. Breaching a protection ordinance runs by report under the planning act's frame, up to CHF 50,000 for intentional breaches. Inside federal hunting-ban districts and marked wildlife rest zones, CHF 150 under federal law.
Is bivouacking treated differently from tenting?
Inside the protection ordinances no: their standard clause bans Lagern as well as Zelten und Kampieren, so the tentless night is covered. Outside them the canton names neither, and the word Biwak does not appear in Zurich law at all.

Sources

  1. Kanton Zürich, Kantonale Natur- und Heimatschutzverordnung (KNHV, LS 702.11), § 15 Abs. 2 and § 21 Abs. 2: protection orders may impose prohibitions "über ... das Lagern, Zelten und Kampieren sowie das Überlassen von Standplätzen für diesen Zweck". Full-text searches of the Loseblattsammlung: campieren 0 hits, biwakieren and Biwak 0; the Polizeigesetz (LS 550.1), Straf- und Justizvollzugsgesetz (LS 331), Planungs- und Baugesetz (LS 700.1), Waldgesetz (LS 921.1) and Wassergesetz (LS 724.1) contain no camping provision. zh.ch. ↩
  2. Verordnung zum Schutz des Greifensees (Baudirektion, 3 March 1994), Ziff. 4.1 Zone I: "Insbesondere sind verboten: ... das Anfachen von Feuer, das Lagern, Zelten, Kampieren sowie das Überlassen von Standplätzen dafür; ..." Same clause in zones IIA/IID and the forest protection zones; identical wording in the Pfäffikersee protection ordinance of 27 May 1999. Both published on the cantonal nature conservation document server. maps.zh.ch. ↩
  3. Kanton Zürich, Planungs- und Baugesetz (LS 700.1), § 340 Abs. 1 and 2: intentional breaches of the act or implementing orders are fined up to Fr. 50,000, negligent ones up to Fr. 5,000. The cantonal Ordnungsbussenverordnung (KOBV, LS 321.2) contains no camping item in its Anhang 1. zh.ch. ↩
  4. Stadt Zürich, Allgemeine Polizeiverordnung (APV, AS 551.110, 6 April 2011), Art. 15 (Campieren): "Das Campieren in Zelten, Wohnwagen und dergleichen auf öffentlichem Grund ausserhalb besonders bezeichneter oder hierfür eingerichteter Plätze bedarf einer Bewilligung des Polizeidepartements." Art. 26: breaches are fined. The hygiene ordinance (LS 710.3 with 710.31) makes even paid private tent pitches permit-free up to three tents or ten people. stadt-zuerich.ch. ↩
  5. Ordnungsbussenverordnung (OBV, SR 314.11), Anhang 2, Ziff. 12005: freies Zelten oder Campieren in eidgenössischen Jagdbanngebieten, CHF 150; Ziff. 12003 Wildruhezonen, gleicher Betrag. Verordnung über die eidgenössischen Jagdbanngebiete (VEJ, SR 922.31), Art. 5 Abs. 1 lit. e. fedlex.admin.ch. ↩