Pro Natura

Description

Pro Natura is a nature conservation organization in Switzerland, founded in 1909 in Basel as the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature.

It is the oldest environmental organization in the country. It campaigns for nature both in politics and through hands-on practical conservation. It cares for around 700 nature reserves of various sizes across Switzerland, some of which it owns.

The organization works at cantonal, national and international level. Its cantonal offices run local conservation work, while the central organization represents it nationally. It is the Swiss member of Friends of the Earth International, and many volunteers support its work.

Pro Natura also runs environmental education through nature centres and activities for schools, and communicates through its own magazine. It pushed for the creation of the first Swiss National Park and later supported a second one. It helped establish an inventory of landscapes and natural sites of national importance that fed into Switzerland’s federal inventory of landscapes and natural monuments.