Pro Natura (Switzerland)


Pro Natura, founded in 1909 in Basel as Swiss League for the Protection of Nature, is the oldest environmental organisation in Switzerland.
Pro Natura takes care of about 700 nature reserves of various sizes throughout Switzerland.

History

In 1909, representatives of the Swiss Society of Natural Sciences founded the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature to fund and create the Swiss National Park. In 2000, Pro Natura launched a campaign supporting the creation of a second Swiss National Park.
In 1947, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature organised an international conference on the protection of nature in Brunnen. It resulted in the creation of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1948.
Between 1958 and 1963, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature, together with the Swiss Heritage Society and the Swiss Alpine Club, established an inventory of landscapes and natural sites of national importance. Based on it, the Swiss Federal Council published the Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments in 1977.
Since 1995, Pro Natura has been a member of the global environmental network Friends of the Earth. In 1997, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature adopted the name Pro Natura.

Objectives

The four main objectives of Pro Natura are:
They reach their objectives through:
Pro Natura also draws public attention to grievances. The foundation started a media campaign in November 2014 calling for action by the federal authorities regarding excess inventory in the structures for breeding livestock and the eutrophication of fields, which has increased massively since the 1990s, particularly in the case of phosphorus.