Federal Act
on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage
(NCHA)¹

The aim of this Act, sub­ject to the au­thor­ity of the Con­fed­er­a­tion un­der Art­icle 78 para­graphs 2–5 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion, is:⁷

a.

to care­fully man­age and pro­tect her­it­age land­scapes and sites of loc­al char­ac­ter, his­tor­ic­al sites, and the coun­try’s nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al monu­ments, and to pro­mote their pre­ser­va­tion and up­keep;

b.

to sup­port the can­tons in ful­filling their tasks in the fields of nature pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion and monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion, and to en­sure co­oper­a­tion with them;

c.

to sup­port the en­deav­ours of or­gan­isa­tions act­ive in the fields of nature pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion or monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion;

d.⁸

to pro­tect in­di­gen­ous flora and fauna, their bio­lo­gic­al di­versity and their nat­ur­al hab­it­ats;

d^bis.⁹

to pro­mote the con­ser­va­tion of bio­lo­gic­al di­versity and the sus­tain­able use of its com­pon­ents through the fair and equit­able shar­ing of be­ne­fits arising from ge­net­ic re­sources;

e.¹⁰

to pro­mote sci­ence and re­search and the edu­ca­tion and train­ing of ex­perts in the fields of nature pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion and monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion.

¹ The ful­fil­ment of fed­er­al tasks as defined in Art­icle 24^sex­ies para­graph 2 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion¹² is taken to mean in par­tic­u­lar:¹³

a.¹⁴

the plan­ning, con­struc­tion and al­ter­a­tion of works and in­stall­a­tions by the Con­fed­er­a­tion, its in­sti­tu­tions and en­ter­prises, such as build­ings and in­stall­a­tions of the fed­er­al ad­min­is­tra­tion, na­tion­al roads, and build­ings and in­stall­a­tions of the Swiss Fed­er­al Rail­ways;

b.

the is­su­ing of li­cences and au­thor­isa­tions, such as those for the con­struc­tion and op­er­a­tion of trans­port in­fra­struc­ture and fa­cil­it­ies (in­clud­ing ap­prov­al of plans) and of works and in­stall­a­tions for con­vey­ing en­ergy, li­quids or gases, and for tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions, as well as au­thor­isa­tions for forest-clear­ing op­er­a­tions;

c.

the pro­vi­sion of sub­sidies for plan­ning, works and in­stall­a­tions, e.g. for land im­prove­ment pro­jects, renov­a­tion of ag­ri­cul­tur­al build­ings, river train­ing, wa­ter body pro­tec­tion struc­tures and trans­port in­fra­struc­ture.

² De­cisions of can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies con­cern­ing pro­jects that can pre­sum­ably be car­ried out only with sub­sidies as spe­cified in para­graph 1c above shall be re­garded as equi­val­ent to the ful­fil­ment of fed­er­al tasks.¹⁵

¹ In the ful­fil­ment of fed­er­al tasks, the Con­fed­er­a­tion, its in­sti­tu­tions and en­ter­prises, and the can­tons shall en­sure that her­it­age land­scapes and sites of loc­al char­ac­ter, his­tor­ic­al sites, and nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al monu­ments are care­fully man­aged and, where there is an over­rid­ing pub­lic in­terest, pre­served un­di­min­ished.¹⁷

² They shall ful­fil this ob­lig­a­tion by:

a.

suit­ably design­ing and main­tain­ing their own build­ings and in­stall­a­tions, or by fore­go­ing their con­struc­tion al­to­geth­er (Art. 2 let. a);

b.

im­pos­ing con­di­tions or re­quire­ments on the is­sue of li­cences and au­thor­isa­tions, or re­fus­ing to is­sue them (Art. 2 let. b);

c.

re­strict­ing or re­fus­ing sub­sidies (Art. 2 let. c).

³ This ob­lig­a­tion ap­plies re­gard­less of the sig­ni­fic­ance of the site as defined in Art­icle 4. A meas­ure must not go bey­ond what is re­quired to pro­tect the site and its sur­round­ings.

⁴ ...¹⁸

With re­gard to her­it­age land­scapes and sites of loc­al char­ac­ter, his­tor­ic­al sites, and nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al monu­ments with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 24­sex­ies para­graph 2 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion¹⁹, a dis­tinc­tion must be made between:

a.

sites of na­tion­al im­port­ance;

b.

sites of re­gion­al and loc­al im­port­ance.

¹ After con­sulta­tion with the can­tons, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall pre­pare in­vent­or­ies of sites of na­tion­al im­port­ance; these may be based on ex­ist­ing in­vent­or­ies drawn up by of­fi­cial in­sti­tu­tions and or­gan­isa­tions act­ive in the fields of nature pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion or monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion.²⁰ The prin­ciples de­term­in­ing the se­lec­tion of sites shall be stated in the in­vent­or­ies, which must also in­clude at least the fol­low­ing de­tails:

a.

a pre­cise de­scrip­tion of the sites;

b.

jus­ti­fic­a­tion for their na­tion­al im­port­ance;

c.

pos­sible threats;

d.

ex­ist­ing pro­tec­tion meas­ures;

e.

the level of pro­tec­tion aimed for;

f.

pro­pos­als for im­prove­ments.

² The in­vent­or­ies need not be ex­haust­ive. They must be re­viewed and up­dated at reg­u­lar in­ter­vals. De­cisions on the in­clu­sion, re­vi­sion or de­le­tion of sites shall be taken by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil after con­sulta­tion with the can­tons. The can­tons may re­quest a re­view on their own ini­ti­at­ive.

¹ The in­clu­sion of a site of na­tion­al im­port­ance in a fed­er­al in­vent­ory in­dic­ates that it par­tic­u­larly de­serves to be pre­served un­di­min­ished, or in any case to be man­aged with the greatest pos­sible care, in­clud­ing the ap­plic­a­tion of res­tor­a­tion or ap­pro­pri­ate re­place­ment meas­ures.²¹

² In ful­filling a fed­er­al task, de­par­tures from the prin­ciple that sites are to be pre­served un­di­min­ished, as spe­cified in the in­vent­or­ies, may only be con­sidered if op­pos­ing in­terests, also of na­tion­al im­port­ance, carry equal or great­er weight.

¹ If the Con­fed­er­a­tion is re­spons­ible for the ful­fil­ment of a fed­er­al task, then, de­pend­ing on its re­mit, either the Fed­er­al Of­fice for the En­vir­on­ment (FOEN), the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Cul­ture or the Fed­er­al Roads Of­fice shall as­sess wheth­er it is ne­ces­sary for an ex­pert re­port to be pre­pared by a com­mis­sion as spe­cified in Art­icle 25 para­graph 1. If the can­ton is re­spons­ible, this as­sess­ment shall be made by the can­ton­al ex­pert body as spe­cified in Art­icle 25 para­graph 2.²³

² If, in con­nec­tion with the ful­fil­ment of a fed­er­al task, a site lis­ted in a fed­er­al in­vent­ory in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 5 may be sig­ni­fic­antly dam­aged or fun­da­ment­al is­sues are raised, the com­mis­sion shall pre­pare an ex­pert re­port for the de­cision-mak­ing au­thor­ity, in­dic­at­ing wheth­er the site should be pre­served un­di­min­ished or how it must be pro­tec­ted.

³ The ex­pert re­port shall be one of the factors con­sidered by the de­cision-mak­ing au­thor­ity when weigh­ing up all the in­terests.²⁴

In im­port­ant cases, a com­mis­sion may, on its own ini­ti­at­ive, at any stage of the pro­ced­ure, sub­mit an ex­pert re­port con­cern­ing the pro­tec­tion of sites or their pre­ser­va­tion in an un­di­min­ished form. However, re­ports shall be sub­mit­ted as early as pos­sible. All ne­ces­sary doc­u­ment­a­tion shall be made avail­able to the com­mis­sion on re­quest.

The com­pet­ent fed­er­al body may also re­quest the can­ton­al ex­pert body (Art. 25 Para. 2), the can­ton­al com­mis­sion re­spons­ible for nature pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion or monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion, or an­oth­er body des­ig­nated by the can­ton to pre­pare an ex­pert re­port. In ad­di­tion, it may re­quest or­gan­isa­tions act­ive in the fields of nature pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion or monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion to sub­mit their com­ments.

In all the cases spe­cified in Art­icles 7, 8 and 9, the can­ton­al gov­ern­ments shall also be con­sul­ted. The can­tons shall in­vite the com­munes con­cerned to state their po­s­i­tion.

In the case of mil­it­ary build­ings and in­stall­a­tions not sub­ject to ap­prov­al in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 126 para­graph 4 of the Armed Forces Act of 3 Feb­ru­ary 1995²⁸, the com­pet­ent fed­er­al au­thor­ity shall not be re­quired to com­mis­sion an ex­pert re­port,²⁹ nor is it ob­liged to provide doc­u­ment­a­tion for the op­tion­al ex­pert re­port.

¹ A right of ap­peal against rul­ings of the can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies or the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies shall be ac­cor­ded to:

a.

the com­munes;

b.

the or­gan­isa­tions con­cerned with nature pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion, monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion or re­lated ob­ject­ives, sub­ject to the fol­low­ing re­quire­ments:

1.

the or­gan­isa­tion is act­ive throughout Switzer­land,

2.

it pur­sues solely non-profit-mak­ing ob­jects; any com­mer­cial activ­it­ies must serve the achieve­ment of its non-profit-mak­ing ob­jects.

² The right of ap­peal is ac­cor­ded to the or­gan­isa­tions only in leg­al fields that have formed part of their ob­jects for at least ten years.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate the or­gan­isa­tions en­titled to ap­peal.

⁴ The su­preme ex­ec­ut­ive body of the or­gan­isa­tion is re­spons­ible for fil­ing the ap­peal.

⁵ The or­gan­isa­tions may give gen­er­al au­thor­isa­tion to their leg­ally in­de­pend­ent can­ton­al and supra-can­ton­al sub-or­gan­isa­tions to raise gen­er­al ob­jec­tions or to file ap­peals in spe­cif­ic cases that re­late to their loc­al area of activ­ity.

An ap­peal against a de­cision on provid­ing a fed­er­al sub­sidy shall be in­ad­miss­ible if a de­cision has already be taken else­where by means of a rul­ing un­der Art­icle 12 para­graph 1 on the plan­ning, the works or the in­stall­a­tion in ful­fil­ment of a fed­er­al task.

¹ The au­thor­ity shall no­ti­fy the com­munes and or­gan­isa­tions of its rul­ings un­der Art­icle 12 para­graph 1 by writ­ten no­tice or by pub­lic­a­tion in the Of­fi­cial Fed­er­al Gaz­ette or in the can­ton­al or­gan of pub­lic­a­tion. The rul­ing shall nor­mally be made avail­able for pub­lic in­spec­tion for 30 days.

² If fed­er­al or can­ton­al law provides for an ob­jec­tion pro­ced­ure, no­tice must also be giv­en of ap­plic­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1.

¹ Com­munes and or­gan­isa­tions that have not ex­er­cised a right of re­course may par­ti­cip­ate in the re­mainder of the pro­ceed­ings as a party only if they are pre­ju­diced by an amend­ment to the rul­ing. For com­puls­ory pur­chase cases, the Fed­er­al Act of 20 June 1930³⁴ on Com­puls­ory Pur­chase (Com­puls­ory Pur­chase Act) ap­plies.

² If a com­mune or an or­gan­isa­tion has not par­ti­cip­ated in ob­jec­tion pro­ceed­ings un­der fed­er­al or can­ton­al law, it shall no longer have the right to ap­peal.

³ If an or­gan­isa­tion has failed to enter a com­pet­ent ob­jec­tion to a land use plan that is equi­val­ent to a rul­ing or if the ob­jec­tion has been dis­missed with full leg­al ef­fect, the or­gan­isa­tion may not enter the same ob­jec­tion in sub­sequent pro­ceed­ings.

⁴ Para­graphs 2 and 3 also ap­ply to ob­jec­tions and ap­peals un­der can­ton­al law against land use plans.

¹ If an ap­plic­ant and an or­gan­isa­tion enter in­to an agree­ment on ob­lig­a­tions that re­late to pub­lic law mat­ters, this agree­ment shall be deemed ex­clus­ively to be a joint ap­plic­a­tion to the au­thor­ity. The au­thor­ity shall take ac­count of the ef­fect of the agree­ment in its rul­ing or de­cision, un­less the agree­ment is de­fect­ive in terms of Art­icle 49 of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968³⁶ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure.

² Agree­ments between ap­plic­ants and or­gan­isa­tions on fin­an­cial or oth­er be­ne­fits are not per­mit­ted if they re­late to:

a.

the en­force­ment of pub­lic law ob­lig­a­tions, and in par­tic­u­lar of­fi­cial re­quire­ments;

b.

meas­ures not provided for un­der pub­lic law or that have no con­nec­tion with the pro­ject;

c.

pay­ment in re­turn for a waiver of a right of re­course or for any oth­er pro­ced­ur­al con­ces­sion.

³ The ap­peal au­thor­ity shall dis­miss an ap­peal if it is an ab­use of leg­al pro­cess or the or­gan­isa­tion has de­man­ded un­law­ful pay­ments in terms of para­graph 2.

Con­struc­tion work may be start be­fore the con­clu­sion of the pro­ceed­ings provided the out­come of the pro­ceed­ings can have no re­per­cus­sions on the work done.

If the or­gan­isa­tion is un­suc­cess­ful in the pro­ceed­ings, it shall bear the costs of the ap­peal be­fore the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies.

¹ The can­tons shall have a right of ap­peal against rul­ings is­sued by fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies un­der Art­icle 12 para­graph 1.

² The Fed­er­al Of­fice con­cerned shall have a right of ap­peal against can­ton­al rul­ings un­der Art­icle 12 para­graph 1; it may make use of the rights of re­course un­der fed­er­al and can­ton­al law.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may sup­port nature pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion and monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion by provid­ing the can­tons with glob­al fin­an­cial as­sist­ance with­in the scope of the au­thor­ised cred­its and on the basis of pro­gramme agree­ments for the pre­ser­va­tion, ac­quis­i­tion, up­keep, in­vest­ig­a­tion and doc­u­ment­a­tion of land­scapes, sites of loc­al char­ac­ter, his­tor­ic­al sites, or nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al monu­ments de­serving pro­tec­tion.

² By way of ex­cep­tion, it may provide fin­an­cial as­sist­ance by means of a rul­ing for pro­jects that re­quire an in­di­vidu­al as­sess­ment by the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

³ The amount of the fin­an­cial as­sist­ance is de­term­ined by the im­port­ance of the site to be pro­tec­ted and the ef­fect­ive­ness of the meas­ures.

⁴ Fin­an­cial as­sist­ance shall be provided only if the meas­ures are cost-ef­fect­ive and are car­ried out pro­fes­sion­ally.

5 The pro­tec­tion and up­keep meas­ures ordered con­sti­tute pub­lic-law re­stric­tions on the use of prop­erty (Art. 702 Civil Code⁴²). They are bind­ing on the landown­er con­cerned and must be re­cor­ded in the land re­gister on ap­plic­a­tion by the can­ton. Ex­emp­tions from this ob­lig­a­tion are de­term­ined by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide sub­sidies to na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions in­volved in nature pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion and monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion to­wards the costs of their activ­it­ies serving the pub­lic in­terest.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may provide sub­sidies for:

a.

re­search pro­jects;

b.

train­ing and con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion of ex­perts;

c.

pub­lic re­la­tions.

² In­so­far as it is in the na­tion­al in­terest, it may either carry out these activ­it­ies it­self or ar­range for them to be car­ried out by third parties at its ex­pense.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may, by con­tract or, if this is not pos­sible, by com­puls­ory pur­chase, pur­chase or safe­guard nat­ur­al land­scapes, his­tor­ic­al sites and nat­ur­al or cul­tur­al monu­ments of na­tion­al im­port­ance. It may as­sign re­spons­ib­il­ity for ad­min­is­tra­tion to can­tons, com­munes or or­gan­isa­tions.⁴⁵

² The Com­puls­ory Pur­chase Act⁴⁶ ap­plies.

In cases where a nat­ur­al land­scape as defined in Art­icle 15, a his­tor­ic­al site, or a cul­tur­al monu­ment of na­tion­al im­port­ance is in im­me­di­ate danger, the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of the En­vir­on­ment, Trans­port, En­ergy and Com­mu­nic­a­tions or the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of Home Af­fairs⁴⁷ may take tem­por­ary meas­ures to place the site in ques­tion un­der fed­er­al pro­tec­tion and or­der any safe­guards ne­ces­sary for its pre­ser­va­tion.⁴⁸

¹ The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall ap­prove by simple fed­er­al de­cree tem­por­ary guar­an­tee cred­its⁵⁰ to guar­an­tee the pro­vi­sion of sub­sidies.

²The fin­an­cing of the areas of cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion and monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion is gov­erned by Art­icle 27 of the Cul­ture Pro­mo­tion Act of 11 Decem­ber 2009⁵¹.⁵²

If a site is no longer deemed worthy of pro­tec­tion, re­pay­ment of all or part of the sub­sidy provided may be re­ques­ted.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall define those cases where, with the ap­prov­al of the can­ton, a com­mis­sion may pre­pare an ex­pert re­port either on its own ini­ti­at­ive or at the re­quest of third parties.

¹ The ex­tinc­tion of in­di­gen­ous an­im­al and plant spe­cies must be pre­ven­ted by pre­serving suf­fi­ciently ex­tens­ive hab­it­ats (bi­otopes) and by oth­er ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures. These meas­ures must pay due re­gard to ag­ri­cul­tur­al and forestry in­terests de­serving pro­tec­tion.

^1bis Spe­cial pro­tec­tion shall be giv­en to ri­pari­an zones, fen­lands and mires, rare forest com­munit­ies, hedgerows, thick­ets, dry grass­lands and oth­er sites that play a role in pre­serving the eco­lo­gic­al bal­ance or which provide es­pe­cially fa­vour­able con­di­tions for bio­coen­oses.⁵⁵

^1ter If, after due con­sid­er­a­tion of the in­terests of all parties, dam­age by tech­nic­al in­ter­ven­tions to hab­it­ats de­serving of pro­tec­tion is un­avoid­able, the party re­spons­ible must take meas­ures to en­sure the best pos­sible pro­tec­tion, res­tor­a­tion, or, fail­ing that, the pro­vi­sion of ap­pro­pri­ate com­pens­a­tion.⁵⁶

² If pest con­trol meas­ures are taken, par­tic­u­larly by us­ing tox­ic sub­stances, care must be taken not to en­danger an­im­al and plant spe­cies de­serving pro­tec­tion.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion may pro­mote the re­set­tle­ment in suit­able sites of spe­cies that have be­come ex­tinct in the wild in Switzer­land or whose num­bers are threatened.

⁴ The fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion on hunt­ing and the pro­tec­tion of birds and on fish­er­ies is re­served.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate bi­otopes of na­tion­al im­port­ance after con­sult­ing the can­tons. It shall define the loc­a­tion of these bi­otopes and spe­cify the pro­tec­tion ob­ject­ives.

² The can­tons shall make ar­range­ments for the pro­tec­tion and up­keep of bi­otopes of na­tion­al im­port­ance. They shall take ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures in good time and en­sure that they are im­ple­men­ted.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may, after con­sult­ing the can­tons, set time lim­its for ar­ran­ging pro­tec­tion meas­ures. Should a can­ton fail, des­pite a re­mind­er, to ar­range pro­tec­tion meas­ures with­in the set peri­od, the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of the En­vir­on­ment, Trans­port, En­ergy and Com­mu­nic­a­tions⁵⁸ may carry out the meas­ures re­quired and pass an ap­pro­pri­ate pro­por­tion of the costs in­curred on to the can­ton.

¹ The can­tons are re­spons­ible for the pro­tec­tion and up­keep of bi­otopes of re­gion­al and loc­al im­port­ance.

² In in­tens­ively used areas with­in and out­side res­id­en­tial areas, the can­tons shall en­sure eco­lo­gic­al com­pens­a­tion by means of thick­ets, hedgerows, ri­pari­an tree plant­a­tions, or oth­er near-nat­ur­al ve­get­a­tion ad­ap­ted to the site. In do­ing so, due con­sid­er­a­tion must be giv­en to ag­ri­cul­tur­al re­quire­ments.

¹ The pro­tec­tion and up­keep of bi­otopes should be achieved wherever pos­sible on the basis of agree­ments with landown­ers and farm or forestry op­er­at­ors, and also by ap­pro­pri­ate ag­ri­cul­tur­al and forestry use.

² Landown­ers and farm or forestry op­er­at­ors have the right to ap­pro­pri­ate com­pens­a­tion if they re­strict ex­ist­ing uses in the in­terests of the pro­tec­tion ob­ject­ive, or provide a ser­vice for no fin­an­cial con­sid­er­a­tion.

³ If a landown­er fails to use the site as re­quired for the pro­tec­tion ob­ject­ives to be achieved, he must tol­er­ate its use by third parties, as ordered by the au­thor­it­ies.

⁴ If land must be ac­quired for the pro­tec­tion ob­ject­ives to be achieved, the can­tons shall have a power of com­puls­ory pur­chase. In their im­ple­ment­a­tion reg­u­la­tions, they may de­clare the Com­puls­ory Pur­chase Act⁶¹ to be ap­plic­able, whereby the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment shall rule on any ob­jec­tions that re­main in dis­pute. If the site to be pro­tec­ted ex­tends over the ter­rit­ory of more than one can­ton, the Com­puls­ory Pur­chase Act ap­plies.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall provide the can­tons with glob­al com­pens­at­ory pay­ments with­in the scope of the au­thor­ised cred­its and on the basis of pro­gramme agree­ments for the pro­tec­tion and up­keep of bi­otopes of na­tion­al, re­gion­al and loc­al im­port­ance and for eco­lo­gic­al com­pens­a­tion.

² By way of ex­cep­tion, it may provide com­pens­at­ory pay­ments by means of a rul­ing for pro­jects that re­quire an in­di­vidu­al as­sess­ment by the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

³ The amount of a com­pens­at­ory pay­ment is de­term­ined by the sig­ni­fic­ance of the site to be pro­tec­ted and the ef­fect­ive­ness of the meas­ures.

⁴ Com­pens­at­ory pay­ments shall be provided only if the meas­ures are cost-ef­fect­ive and are car­ried out pro­fes­sion­ally.

⁵ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall bear the costs of des­ig­nat­ing bi­otopes of na­tion­al im­port­ance.

The gath­er­ing of wild plants and cap­tur­ing of an­im­als liv­ing in the wild for com­mer­cial pur­poses are sub­ject to ap­prov­al by the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity. Such ap­prov­al may be re­stric­ted to par­tic­u­lar spe­cies, areas, sea­sons and quant­it­ies or num­bers, or in oth­er ways, and or­gan­ised gath­er­ing or cap­tur­ing activ­it­ies and the pro­mo­tion there­of may be pro­hib­ited. The fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to nor­mal ag­ri­cul­tur­al and forestry ex­ploit­a­tion, or to the col­lec­tion of con­ven­tion­al amounts of fungi, ber­ries, and herbs used in teas and for medi­cin­al pur­poses, un­less the spe­cies in ques­tion are pro­tec­ted.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may com­pletely or par­tially pro­hib­it the pick­ing, dig­ging up, up­root­ing, re­mov­al, of­fer­ing for sale, sale, pur­chase or de­struc­tion of rare plants. It may like­wise take ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures to pro­tect an­im­al spe­cies that are at risk or oth­er­wise de­serve to be pro­tec­ted.⁶³

² The can­tons may is­sue such pro­hib­i­tions for ad­di­tion­al spe­cies.

³ For the pur­poses of spe­cies pro­tec­tion, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may also im­pose con­di­tions on, re­strict or pro­hib­it the pro­duc­tion, pla­cing on the mar­ket, im­port, ex­port and trans­it of plants or plant products.⁶⁴

¹ Ri­pari­an ve­get­a­tion (reed and rush beds, al­lu­vi­al zone ve­get­a­tion and oth­er nat­ur­al ri­pari­an plant com­munit­ies) may not be cleared or covered up, or oth­er­wise des­troyed.

² Where con­di­tions per­mit, the can­tons shall en­sure that ri­pari­an ve­get­a­tion is es­tab­lished if none is present, or at least that con­di­tions fa­vour­able to its de­vel­op­ment are cre­ated.⁶⁶

¹ The com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­ity may, for sci­entif­ic pur­poses or for edu­ca­tion­al and thera­peut­ic pur­poses, grant ex­cep­tion­al ap­prov­al for pro­tec­ted plants to be gathered or dug up or for an­im­als to be cap­tured in spe­cified areas.

² It may au­thor­ise the re­mov­al of ri­pari­an ve­get­a­tion for pro­jects lim­ited to a spe­cif­ic site in cases per­mit­ted un­der the le­gis­la­tion on the wa­ter bod­ies pro­tec­tion au­thor­it­ies or on the pro­tec­tion of wa­ter bod­ies.⁶⁷

³ If on the basis of a dif­fer­ent en­act­ment a fed­er­al au­thor­ity is com­pet­ent to de­cide on a pro­ject, this au­thor­ity shall grant the ex­cep­tion­al ap­prov­al. ...⁶⁸.⁶⁹

The es­tab­lish­ment of an­im­als and plants of spe­cies, sub­spe­cies and breeds not nat­ive to the coun­try or site shall be sub­ject to ap­prov­al by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil. The fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to en­clos­ures, gar­dens and parks, or to ag­ri­cul­tur­al and forestry en­ter­prises.

Art­icles 18a, 18cand 18dap­ply to the pro­tec­tion of mires of out­stand­ing beauty and na­tion­al im­port­ance.

¹ A mire land­scape is a near-nat­ur­al land­scape char­ac­ter­ised by the pres­ence of mires. The non-mire part there­of bears a close eco­lo­gic­al, visu­al, cul­tur­al or his­tor­ic­al re­la­tion­ship to the mires.

² A mire land­scape is deemed to be of out­stand­ing beauty and na­tion­al im­port­ance if it:

a.

is unique, or

b.

is among the most valu­able of a group of com­par­able mire land­scapes.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate and define the po­s­i­tion of mire land­scapes of out­stand­ing beauty and na­tion­al im­port­ance de­serving of pro­tec­tion, tak­ing ac­count of ex­ist­ing set­tle­ments and land use. In do­ing so, it shall co­oper­ate closely with the can­tons, who in turn shall con­sult the landown­ers con­cerned.

⁴ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall fin­ance the work of des­ig­nat­ing mire land­scapes of out­stand­ing beauty and na­tion­al im­port­ance.

¹ The over­all pro­tec­tion ob­ject­ive shall be to pre­serve the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al fea­tures of the mire land­scapes that ac­count for their out­stand­ing beauty and na­tion­al im­port­ance. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall spe­cify pro­tec­tion ob­ject­ives ap­pro­pri­ate to the par­tic­u­lar fea­tures of the mire land­scapes.

² The can­tons are re­spons­ible for for­mu­lat­ing spe­cif­ic pro­tec­tion ob­ject­ives and for their im­ple­ment­a­tion. They shall take the ap­pro­pri­ate pro­tec­tion and up­keep meas­ures in good time. Art­icles 18a para­graph 3 and 18cap­ply by ana­logy.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall provide the can­tons with glob­al com­pens­at­ory pay­ments with­in the scope of the au­thor­ised cred­its and on the basis of pro­gramme agree­ments for the pro­tec­tion and up­keep meas­ures.⁷²

4 By way of ex­cep­tion, it may provide com­pens­at­ory pay­ments by means of a rul­ing for pro­jects that re­quire an in­di­vidu­al as­sess­ment by the Con­fed­er­a­tion.⁷³

⁵ The amount of the sub­sidies is de­term­ined by the ef­fect­ive­ness of the meas­ures.⁷⁴

⁶ Com­pens­at­ory pay­ments shall be provided only if the meas­ures are cost-ef­fect­ive and are car­ried out pro­fes­sion­ally.⁷⁵

¹ The re­mod­el­ling and use of mire land­scapes shall be per­mit­ted provided that this does not con­flict with the pre­ser­va­tion of the fea­tures typ­ic­al of these land­scapes.

² Sub­ject to para­graph 1, the fol­low­ing are per­mit­ted in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

ag­ri­cul­tur­al and forestry use;

b.

main­ten­ance and re­new­al of law­fully erec­ted build­ings and in­stall­a­tions;

c.

meas­ures de­signed to pro­tect people against nat­ur­al dis­asters;

d.

in­fra­struc­ture re­quired for the ap­plic­a­tion of let­ters a–c above.

¹ Parks of na­tion­al im­port­ance are areas with high nat­ur­al and land­scape val­ues.

² They are di­vided in­to the fol­low­ing cat­egor­ies:

a.

na­tion­al parks;

b.

re­gion­al nature parks;

c.

nature dis­cov­ery parks.

¹ A na­tion­al park is a large area that provides un­spoiled hab­it­ats to the in­di­gen­ous flora and fauna, and which al­lows the land­scape to evolve nat­ur­ally.

² With­in this frame­work, it also serves the pur­pose of:

a.

of­fer­ing areas for re­cre­ation;

b.

pro­mot­ing en­vir­on­ment­al edu­ca­tion;

c.

per­mit­ting sci­entif­ic re­search, in par­tic­u­lar in­to the in­di­gen­ous flora and fauna and in­to the nat­ur­al evol­u­tion of the land­scape.

³ It com­prises:

a.

a core zone where nature is al­lowed to de­vel­op freely and to which the gen­er­al pub­lic has only lim­ited ac­cess;

b.

a buf­fer zone where the cul­tur­al land­scape is man­aged in a near-nat­ur­al man­ner and is pro­tec­ted against det­ri­ment­al in­ter­ven­tions.

¹ A re­gion­al nature park is a large, partly pop­u­lated area, char­ac­ter­ised by the rich­ness of its nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al land­scape, whose build­ings and in­stall­a­tions blend har­mo­ni­ously with the land­scape and sites of loc­al char­ac­ter.

² With­in a re­gion­al nat­ur­al park:

a.

the qual­ity of nature and the land­scape shall be main­tained and en­hanced;

b.

sus­tain­able busi­ness activ­it­ies shall be en­cour­aged and the mar­ket­ing of the res­ult­ant goods and ser­vices pro­moted.

¹ A nature dis­cov­ery park is an area close to a densely pop­u­lated area that of­fers un­spoiled hab­it­ats to the in­di­gen­ous flora and fauna and al­lows the gen­er­al pub­lic to ex­per­i­ence nature.

² With­in this frame­work, it shall also serve to pro­mote en­vir­on­ment­al edu­ca­tion.

³ It com­prises:

a.

a core zone where nature is al­lowed to de­vel­op freely and to which the gen­er­al pub­lic has only lim­ited ac­cess;

b.

a trans­ition zone where nature can be ex­per­i­enced and which acts as a buf­fer against harm­ful in­tru­sions in­to the core zone.

¹ The can­tons shall sup­port re­gion­al ef­forts to es­tab­lish and op­er­ate parks of na­tion­al im­port­ance.

² They shall en­sure that the res­id­ents in the com­munes con­cerned can play their part in a suit­able man­ner.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall award a park la­bel to the park au­thor­ity on the re­com­mend­a­tion of the can­tons provided:

a.

the long term ex­ist­ence of the park is guar­an­teed through ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures;

b.

the re­quire­ments of Art­icles 23f, 23g or 23h and of Art­icles 23e, 23i para­graph 2 and 23l let­ters a and b are ful­filled.

² The au­thor­ity for a park with the park la­bel shall on ap­plic­a­tion award a product la­bel to the per­sons and busi­nesses that man­u­fac­ture products or provide ser­vices in the park in a sus­tain­able man­ner in or­der to des­ig­nate these products or ser­vices.

³ The park la­bel and product la­bel are awar­ded for a lim­ited peri­od.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall provide the can­tons with glob­al fin­an­cial as­sist­ance with­in the lim­its of the au­thor­ised cred­its and on the basis of pro­gramme agree­ments for the es­tab­lish­ment, op­er­a­tion and qual­ity as­sur­ance of parks of na­tion­al im­port­ance provided:

a.

the parks ful­fil the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 23j para­graph 1 let­ters a and b;

b.

reas­on­able self-fin­an­cing meas­ures and oth­er fund­ing meth­ods are in­suf­fi­cient;

c.

the meas­ures are cost-ef­fect­ive and are im­ple­men­ted pro­fes­sion­ally.

² The amount of fin­an­cial as­sist­ance is de­term­ined by the ef­fect­ive­ness of the meas­ures.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions on:

a.

the re­quire­ments for the award of the park la­bel and the product la­bel to parks of na­tion­al im­port­ance, and in par­tic­u­lar on the size of the park, the per­mit­ted uses, the pro­tec­tion meas­ures and the guar­an­tee of the long-term ex­ist­ence of the park;

b.

the award and ex­ploit­a­tion of the park la­bel and the product la­bel;

c.

the con­clu­sion of pro­gramme agree­ments and the veri­fic­a­tion of the ef­fect­ive­ness of the glob­al fin­an­cial as­sist­ance from the Con­fed­er­a­tion;

d.

sup­port for sci­entif­ic re­search on parks of na­tion­al im­port­ance.

¹ The ex­ist­ing Na­tion­al Park in Can­ton Graubünden is gov­erned by the Na­tion­al Park Act of 19 Decem­ber 1980⁷⁷.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion may award the «Swiss Na­tion­al Park Found­a­tion» a park la­bel be­fore any ex­pan­sion through the ad­di­tion of a buf­fer zone in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 23f para­graph 3 let­ter b.

³ Any ex­pan­sion by means of a buf­fer zone shall be pro­moted in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 23k.

¹ Any per­son who in ac­cord­ance with the Nagoya Pro­tocol util­ises ge­net­ic re­sources or be­ne­fits dir­ectly from their util­isa­tion (users) must ap­ply due di­li­gence ap­pro­pri­ate to the cir­cum­stances to en­sure that:

a.

the re­sources have been ac­cessed law­fully; and

b.

mu­tu­ally agreed terms for the fair and equit­able shar­ing of the be­ne­fits have been es­tab­lished.

² Ge­net­ic re­sources are not sub­ject to the due di­li­gence re­quire­ment if they:

a.

ori­gin­ate from a coun­try that is not a Party to the Nagoya Pro­tocol;

b.

ori­gin­ate from a coun­try that has no do­mest­ic ac­cess and be­ne­fit-shar­ing reg­u­lat­ory re­quire­ments;

c.

ori­gin­ate from an area bey­ond na­tion­al jur­is­dic­tion of any Party to the Nagoya Pro­tocol;

d.

are covered for a spe­cif­ic use by a spe­cial­ised in­ter­na­tion­al in­stru­ment un­der Art­icle 4 of the Nagoya Pro­tocol;

e.

are hu­man ge­net­ic re­sources;

f.

as com­mod­it­ies or goods in trade are not util­ised as ge­net­ic re­sources in terms of the Nagoya Pro­tocol.

³ The util­isa­tion of ge­net­ic re­sources in terms of para­graph 1 means to con­duct re­search and de­vel­op­ment on the ge­net­ic or bio­chem­ic­al com­pos­i­tion of ge­net­ic re­sources, in­clud­ing through the ap­plic­a­tion of bi­o­tech­no­logy.

⁴ Ac­cess un­der para­graph 1 let­ter a is law­ful, if, by vir­tue of the Nagoya Pro­tocol, it is in ac­cord­ance with the do­mest­ic ac­cess and be­ne­fit-shar­ing reg­u­lat­ory re­quire­ments of the Party to the Nagoya Pro­tocol that provides the re­source.

⁵ If the re­quire­ments of para­graph 1 let­ters a and b are not met, users must en­sure that they are met sub­sequently, or must re­frain from util­ising the ge­net­ic re­sources con­cerned or from be­ne­fit­ing dir­ectly from their util­isa­tion. In emer­gen­cies, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for a delay in meet­ing the re­quire­ments for ge­net­ic re­sources that are patho­gen­ic or harm­ful or­gan­isms.

⁶ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late what in­form­a­tion on util­ised ge­net­ic re­sources must be re­cor­ded and passed on to sub­sequent users.

¹ No­ti­fic­a­tion of com­pli­ance with the due di­li­gence re­quire­ment must be giv­en to the FOEN be­fore mar­ket au­thor­isa­tion has been ob­tained or, if such au­thor­isa­tion is not re­quired, be­fore the com­mer­cial­isa­tion of products de­veloped on the basis of util­ised ge­net­ic re­sources.

² In­form­a­tion re­lat­ing to com­pli­ance with the due di­li­gence re­quire­ment may be passed on to the in­ter­na­tion­al clear­ing-house de­scribed in Art­icle 14 of the Nagoya Pro­tocol and to the com­pet­ent na­tion­al au­thor­it­ies of Parties to the Nagoya Pro­tocol. The name of the no­ti­fy­ing per­son, the product to be com­mer­cial­ised, the util­ised ge­net­ic re­source, the date on which it was ac­cessed, and its source are made pub­licly avail­able.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall des­ig­nate the au­thor­it­ies re­spons­ible for veri­fy­ing com­pli­ance with the no­ti­fic­a­tion re­quire­ment. It may provide for ex­emp­tions to the no­ti­fic­a­tion re­quire­ment if the veri­fic­a­tion of com­pli­ance with the due di­li­gence re­quire­ment is en­sured by oth­er means.

Art­icles 23n and 23o also ap­ply to tra­di­tion­al know­ledge of in­di­gen­ous and loc­al com­munit­ies as­so­ci­ated with ge­net­ic re­sources un­less such tra­di­tion­al know­ledge is already freely avail­able to the pub­lic.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make ac­cess to ge­net­ic re­sources in Switzer­land sub­ject to no­ti­fic­a­tion or au­thor­isa­tion and to an agree­ment that reg­u­lates the util­isa­tion of ge­net­ic re­sources and the shar­ing of be­ne­fits arising out of their util­isa­tion.

² The Con­fed­er­a­tion may sup­port the con­ser­va­tion and sus­tain­able use of ge­net­ic re­sources.

¹ Any per­son who wil­fully and without au­thor­isa­tion:⁸²

a.⁸³

des­troys or ser­i­ously dam­ages a nat­ur­al or cul­tur­al monu­ment pro­tec­ted un­der this Act, a pro­tec­ted his­tor­ic­al site, a pro­tec­ted nat­ur­al land­scape or a pro­tec­ted bi­otope;

b.

clears, cov­ers up or oth­er­wise des­troys ri­pari­an ve­get­a­tion as spe­cified in Art­icle 21;

c.⁸⁴

des­troys or ser­i­ously dam­ages bur­ied nat­ur­al ob­jects or an­tiquit­ies of sub­stan­tial sci­entif­ic value⁸⁵ (Art. 724 para. 1 Civil Code⁸⁶);

d.⁸⁷

...

shall be li­able to a term of im­pris­on­ment not ex­ceed­ing one year or to a mon­et­ary pen­alty.

² In cases of neg­li­gence, the pen­alty shall be a fine not ex­ceed­ing 40,000 Swiss francs.⁸⁸

¹ Any per­son who:

a.

fails to com­ply with a con­di­tion or re­quire­ment that makes spe­cif­ic ref­er­ence to this pro­vi­sion that is re­lated to the pro­vi­sion of a fed­er­al sub­sidy;

b.⁹⁰

con­tra­venes an im­ple­ment­a­tion reg­u­la­tion is­sued un­der Art­icles 16, 18, 18a, 18b, 18c, 19, 20, 23c, 23dor 25a, where in­fringe­ments have been de­clared to be of­fences;

c.

per­forms an ac­tion without au­thor­isa­tion where ap­prov­al is re­quired as spe­cified in Art­icles 19, 22 para­graph 1, or 23

shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 20,000 Swiss francs.

² Any per­son who wil­fully fails to provide in­form­a­tion or provides false in­form­a­tion un­der Art­icle 23o shall be li­able to a fine not ex­ceed­ing 100,000 Swiss francs; in cases of neg­li­gence, the pen­alty shall be a fine not ex­ceed­ing 40,000 Swiss francs. The court may or­der the pub­lic­a­tion of the judg­ment.⁹¹

Art­icles 6 and 7 of the Fed­er­al Act of 22 March 1974⁹³ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Crim­in­al Law ap­ply.

Art­icle 69 of the Crim­in­al Code⁹⁵ re­lat­ing to the for­feit­ure of un­law­fully ac­quired items and pe­cu­ni­ary be­ne­fits ap­plies.

¹ The can­tons are re­spons­ible for pro­sec­u­tion.

² ...⁹⁷

Any per­son who dam­ages a nat­ur­al or cul­tur­al monu­ment pro­tec­ted un­der this Act, a pro­tec­ted his­tor­ic­al site, a pro­tec­ted nat­ur­al land­scape, a pro­tec­ted bi­otope or pro­tec­ted ri­pari­an ve­get­a­tion may, ir­re­spect­ive of any crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings, be re­quired:

a.

to re­verse the il­leg­al meas­ures;

b.

to pay the costs of rem­edy­ing the dam­age;

c.

to take ap­pro­pri­ate com­pens­at­ory meas­ures if the dam­age is ir­re­par­able.

The can­tons shall im­ple­ment this Act un­less im­ple­ment­a­tion is as­signed to the Con­fed­er­a­tion. They shall is­sue the re­quired reg­u­la­tions.

1 The Con­fed­er­a­tion su­per­vises the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act.

2 It co­ordin­ates the im­ple­ment­ing meas­ures car­ried out by the can­tons and the rel­ev­ant fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies.

1 The fed­er­al au­thor­ity that im­ple­ments an­oth­er fed­er­al act or in­ter­na­tion­al treaty is also re­spons­ible when ful­filling that task for im­ple­ment­ing this Act. It shall con­sult the can­tons con­cerned be­fore mak­ing its de­cision. The FOEN, the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Cul­ture, the Fed­er­al Roads Of­fice and the oth­er fed­er­al of­fices con­cerned shall co­oper­ate in im­ple­ment­ing this Act in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 62aand 62bof the Gov­ern­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Act of 21 March 1997¹⁰³.

² If the pro­ced­ure un­der para­graph 1 is un­suit­able for cer­tain tasks, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late im­ple­ment­a­tion by the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies con­cerned.

³ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall en­force the reg­u­la­tions on ge­net­ic re­sources (Art. 23n−23q); it may del­eg­ate spe­cif­ic tasks to the can­tons.

⁴ The fed­er­al im­ple­ment­ing au­thor­it­ies shall take ac­count of can­ton­al nature and cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion meas­ures.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall ap­point one or more ad­vis­ory com­mis­sions for nature pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion and monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion.

² The can­tons shall des­ig­nate ex­pert bod­ies for nature pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­tec­tion and monu­ment pre­ser­va­tion.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons are re­spons­ible for in­form­ing and ad­vising the au­thor­it­ies and the pub­lic on the im­port­ance and the con­di­tion of nature and the land­scape.

² They shall re­com­mend ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures for pro­tec­tion and up­keep.

¹ The can­tons shall des­ig­nate the in­stall­a­tions, build­ings and areas of soil de­grad­a­tion ori­gin­at­ing after 1 June 1983 with­in mires and mire land­scapes of out­stand­ing beauty and na­tion­al im­port­ance that con­flict with the pro­tec­tion ob­ject­ives and were not duly ap­proved on the basis of land use zones in ac­cord­ance with the Spa­tial Plan­ning Act of 22 June 1979¹⁰⁹.

² With­in the mire land­scape at Rothen­thurm, the can­tons of Schwyz and Zug shall des­ig­nate in­stall­a­tions, build­ings and areas of soil de­grad­a­tion ori­gin­at­ing after 1 June 1983 that are covered by the trans­ition­al pro­vi­sion to Art­icle 24­sex­ies para­graph 5 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion.¹¹⁰

³ Res­tor­a­tion to the ori­gin­al con­di­tion shall ordered by the can­ton­al or fed­er­al au­thor­ity that would be re­spons­ible for de­cisions on the au­thor­isa­tion or im­ple­ment­a­tion of such pro­jects. In restor­ing the ori­gin­al con­di­tion, due con­sid­er­a­tion shall be giv­en to the prin­ciple of pro­por­tion­al­ity.

Art­icles 23n and 23o ap­ply to cases re­lat­ing to ac­cess to ge­net­ic re­sources that oc­curs after the said pro­vi­sions come in­to force.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the date on which this Act comes in­to force. It shall is­sue the ne­ces­sary im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 1967¹¹⁴