Protected areas of national importance

The Swiss National Park, established in 1914, was the first protected area in Switzerland, and remained the only one for many years. The need to provide a certain protection for landscapes of national importance led in 1977 to the federal inventory of landscapes and natural monuments of national importance (BLN), which was later supplemented in three steps. The Rothenthurm Initiative provided impetus for innovation. Connected with this, the 1987 revision of the Law on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage strengthened nature protection at all levels, an effective federal competence for biotopes of national importance and 88 mire landscapes. A supplement followed in 2001, in the form of a first series of amphibian spawning areas, which is even more directly linked to efforts towards species protection.

Two further categories of protected areas: federal game reserves and reserves for waterfowl and migratory birds originated in the revision of the Law on Hunting, in the nineties. The large protected areas programme, is the consequence of the realization that increasing destruction of biological and landscape diversity could not have been stopped and that the proportion of wilderness areas and national parks in relation to the total area of Switzerland is very small compared with other states of Europe. The first representatives are the biosphere reserve of Entlebuch, and the UNESCO world natural heritage sites of Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn and Monte San Giorgio.