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

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.