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

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.