Ecological compensation areas such as hedges, extensively farmed grassland or wildflower strips are valuable habitats harboring a rich variety of indigenous plant and animal species. These valuable habitats are to be conserved and, wherever possible, reenlarged. Ecological compensation areas both complement nature reserves and contribute to the preservation of traditional landscape structures and elements.

Since Switzerland’s federal government launched its ecological programs in 1993, ecological compensation areas (ECAs) eligible for direct government subsidies have been expanding from approximately 70,500 to roughly 120,000 hectares. Including standard fruit tree ECA equivalents, ECAs currently cover roughly 11% of the country’s agricultural land overall. However, their total size has been stagnating since 2002.

Stepping up the effort in 2001, the Ordinance on Ecological Quality (OEQ) was introduced in order to allow additional payments aimed at preserving ecological compensation areas of particular biological quality. After first skyrocketing from 14,100 hectares in 2002 to roughly 32,200 hectares in 2005, ECAs of particular biological quality started to shrink again, dropping back down to 25,100 hectares by 2008.