Under the original law, glacier protection operated automatically and comprehensively: all glaciers and periglacial geoforms were presumed protected by virtue of their existence and their role as water reserves. The Reform narrows this approach. The protection is now linked to whether a glacier or periglacial environment fulfills specific functions, namely acting as a strategic water reserve or contributing to the recharge of hydrographic basins. This functional criterion is central to the amendments and appears consistently throughout the Reform, affecting how protection is triggered, maintained, or lifted.

One of the most consequential changes introduced by the Reform relates to the National Glacier Inventory. Whereas the original law conceived the Inventory as a technical registry underpinning an automatic and extensive prohibition regime, the amended framework converts it into a selective and adaptive instrument. Although glaciers and periglacial geoforms included in the Inventory are initially subject to protection, Article 3 bis establishes a specific mechanism allowing their exclusion if the competent environmental authority determines that they do not fulfill the required hydrological functions. Once such a determination is made, the formation in question is no longer covered by the Glacier Law and is instead subject only to general environmental legislation.

Restrictions on activities such as mining, hydrocarbon exploration, industrial development, and infrastructure remain in place, but their application is no longer automatic across all glaciers and periglacial environments. Instead, prohibitions apply only to those areas that have been identified as functionally protected. Environmental impact assessments continue to be required, but the amended framework places greater discretion in the hands of local authorities to interpret what constitutes a relevant alteration and whether activities may proceed.