¹ The Confederation provides, within the limits of the means available, support for the financing of measures to safeguard and maintain traditional rural landscapes. ¹

² It establishes a special fund for this purpose.

Financial assistance shall be granted for the implementation of measures designed in particular to:

A.

Protect, preserve, maintain or rebuild traditional rural landscapes;

B.

To maintain and encourage traditional operating methods adapted to local conditions;

C.

Protect, preserve, maintain, renovate or reconstruct historic buildings or lines of communication or other elements of the traditional rural landscape;

D.

To inform on the need to preserve and maintain these landscapes.

Assistance recipients may be:

A.

The cantons, municipalities, other public law communities and independent public law institutions;

B.

Natural or legal persons of private law.

The aid may represent, depending on the importance of the project, 80 % of the costs, and, exceptionally, the totality of these costs.

¹ Assistance shall be granted on reasoned request.

² Where the determining costs are only partially known at the time of the decision, the aid is first decided in principle, pursuant to Art. 17, para. 1, of the Act of 5 October 1990 on subsidies ¹ .

The aid granted under this Order may be in addition to other financial aid or allowances, unless otherwise provided.

¹ Decisions concerning the granting, refusal and reimbursement of financial assistance shall be taken by a committee of nine to thirteen members established by the Federal Council. The Confederation, the cantons and the organisations for the protection of nature, the landscape and the heritage are represented appropriately.

² The Federal Council appoints the chairman of the committee. For the rest, it constitutes itself and designates its secretariat; it gives itself a regulation, which must be approved by the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communication ¹ .

¹ A fund without a legal personality is set up to provide funding for aid. The Federal Chambers decide to supply the fund with a simple federal decree.

² The fund can also be financed by donations from third parties.

³ The fund is administered by the Commission.

⁴ The possible balance of the fund, upon the expiry of the validity of this Order, shall be used to grant financial aid or allowances, in accordance with the objectives set out in Article 1.

¹ This Order is of general application and is subject to the referendum. ¹

² It shall enter into force retroactively to the ^Er August 1991; its validity expires on July 31, 2001.

³ The validity of this Order is extended until July 31, 2011. ²

⁴ The validity of this Order shall be continued until 31 July 2021. ³