The Swiss Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan
Switzerland has had a biodiversity strategy in place since 2012. The strategy defines the main focus of the Confederation's commitment to conserving species diversity, ecosystems and genetic diversity on the basis of ten strategic goals. The Federal Council supplemented the strategy with an action plan in 2017. The second implementation phase of the action plan has been ongoing since 2025; phase one ran from 2017 to 2024.
The SBS Action Plan
The Swiss Biodiversity Strategy (SBS) emerged from the Rio de Janeiro Sustainability Summit. In 1992, Switzerland signed the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), thereby committing itself to formulating a national strategy. The SBS, adopted in 2012, states that Switzerland will strive to conserve and promote biodiversity and its ecosystem services for the economy and society. The Federal Council decision of 20 November 2024 reconfirms the validity of the SBS targets and extends them until 2030.
The Swiss Biodiversity Strategy
In 2017 the Federal Council adopted the Swiss Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan (AP SBS). This is an important instrument for implementing the strategy.
Phase II (2025–30)
On 20 November 2024, the Federal Council also tasked the FOEN with implementing the second phase of the Swiss Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan from 2025 to 2030 (AP SBS II). The content of AP SBS II makes reference to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
AP SBS II addresses existing deficits in order to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the work carried out under the programme agreements and sectoral policies. It does this by filling knowledge gaps, running pilot applications to test promising approaches, and drawing up implementation concepts. In total, AP SBS II comprises 22 measures overseen by various federal offices.
The FOEN’s 15 measures address the effects of climate change on biodiversity, as well as insect decline. New approaches to promoting species and preserving genetic diversity are also being developed and tested. Further actions address the fields of economy, knowledge and innovation. One set of measures aims to improve the ecology of specific habitats such as forests, lakes and settlements and to improve their connectivity.
Other federal offices are implementing a total of seven measures in their respective policy areas with the specific aim of enhancing biodiversity along national highways and railway lines. In addition, biodiversity and the connectivity of habitats are to be better integrated into spatial planning processes, while the cantons are to be supported in implementing biodiversity-friendly energy production. In the agricultural sector, efforts to promote insects and ecosystem services are being further developed.
Phase I (2017–24)
Phase I of AP SBS, running from 2017 to 2024, involved a number of immediate measures and synergy measures, as well as pilot projects implemented in conjunction with partners within the Federal Administration and with cantons, communes and third parties. AP SBS I achieved some important milestones and led to activities over the longer term, such as a secured increase in funding under the nature conservation and forest biodiversity programme agreements concluded between the Confederation and the cantons. Along with funds made available in other sectors (e.g. agriculture, forestry, transport), this will help to promote biodiversity in Switzerland.
Massnahmen und Pilotprojekte Phase I