Biodiversity does not stop at national borders, and the fight against the ongoing loss of habitats and species is a global task. At the legal level, therefore, there are various international agreements on the conservation of biodiversity. One of the most important international agreements is the "Rio 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity" (CBD), which has been in force in Switzerland since 1 February 1995. By signing the CBD, the signatory states undertook to draw up a national biodiversity strategy. Accordingly, the Federal Council adopted the "Biodiversity Strategy" for Switzerland in 2012. This was put into concrete terms in the 2017 Action Plan, which includes measures for the direct and long-term promotion of biodiversity. The Action Plan aims to strengthen the use of synergies between federal biodiversity policy and interfaces such as agriculture and spatial planning and also to raise public awareness of the problem of biodiversity loss. The Federal Council recently decided to extend the first implementation phase of the Action Plan (2017-2023) until 2024.
The conservation and promotion of biodiversity is a cross-sectoral task, which means that its legal points of reference are particularly diverse. The Federal Act on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage (NCHA) is an authoritative framework at the national level. Among other things, it aims to preserve biological diversity and promote the sustainable use of its components (Art. 1 let. d and dbis NHG). Important regulations on the protection of biodiversity can also be found in the Agriculture Act, the Water Protection Act, the Spatial Planning Act, the Forestry Act, the Hunting Act and associated ordinances. In addition, there are various regulations at the cantonal and communal level that also affect biodiversity. In particular, but by no means exhaustively, the various cantonal and municipal regulations in the area of spatial planning should be considered.
More and more companies have become increasingly proactive in addressing sustainability issues. However, the protection of biodiversity has not yet been included in the ESG reporting obligations of companies in Switzerland (Art. 964a ff. of the Swiss Code of Obligations). This is different in the European Union where biodiversity and ecosystems are considered a sub-aspect of ESG reporting obligations. It is by no means impossible that Switzerland will catch up with the European Union in this regard in the medium term.
In September 2020, the so-called Biodiversity Initiative was submitted in Switzerland. By amending the Federal Constitution, the Confederation and cantons would be obliged to better protect biodiversity and make more land and money available for this purpose. Although the Federal Council rejects the initiative, according to its dispatch it is in favour of the initiative in principle and agrees with the urgent need for action. It therefore submitted an indirect counter-proposal to Parliament, which the Council of States did not accept. Consequently, the initiative will be put to the vote without a counter-proposal. If the initiative is accepted, its actual implementation will likely be the subject of much discussion.
