The funding programme is designed to contribute to permanent preservation of natural landscapes and to protecting and developing cultural landscapes with outstanding habitats and animal and plant species in need of special protection. The Federal Government currently allocates an annual €14 million to large-scale nature conservation projects. Over the past 40 years, the funding programme – which has one of Germany’s largest budgets for nature conservation – has given rise to significant developments in the programme area, many of which go beyond nature conservation and extend to areas such as regional development. Projects are funded which are of great nature conservation importance at both national and international level.