About Biosphere Reserves

Biosphere Reserves operate under a programme of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) known as the Man and the Biosphere Programme. Biosphere Reserves are areas of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems promoting solutions to reconcile the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use. They remain under sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located. Biosphere reserves serve in some ways as “living laboratories” for testing out and demonstrating integrated management of land, water and biodiversity. Each biosphere reserve is intended to fulfill three basic functions, which are complementary and mutually reinforcing: A conservation function - to contribute to the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic variation; A development function - to foster economic and human development which is socio-culturally and ecologically sustainable; A logistic function - to provide support for research, monitoring, education and information exchange related to local, national and global issues of conservation and development.

Biosphere Reserves are not covered by an international convention but must simply meet a set of criteria allowing them to fulfill properly their three functions. Collectively, biosphere reserves form a World Network. Within this network, exchanges of information, experience and personnel are promoted. Biosphere Reserves are designed to meet one of the most challenging issues that the World is facing today: How can we conserve the diversity of plants, animals and micro-organisms which make up our living "biosphere" and maintain healthy natural systems while, at the same time, meet the material needs and aspirations of an increasing number of people? How can we reconcile conservation of natural resources with their sustainable use? Biosphere reserves have been designed as tools for reconciling and integrating the conflicting interests and pressures that characterize land-use planning today.

The origin of Biosphere Reserves

The origin of Biosphere Reserves goes back to the "Biosphere Conference" organized by UNESCO in 1968, the first intergovernmental conference to seek to reconcile the conservation and use of natural resources, thereby foreshadowing the present-day notion of sustainable development. The aim was to establish terrestrial and coastal areas representing the main ecosystems of the planet in which genetic resources would be protected, and where research on ecosystems as well as monitoring and training work could be carried out for an intergovernmental programme called for by the Conference. This "Man and the Biosphere" (MAB) Programme was officially launched by UNESCO in 1970. One of the MAB projects consisted in establishing a coordinated world network of new protected areas, to be designated as "Biosphere Reserves", in reference to the programme itself. In 1995, the International Conference on Biosphere Reserves, held in Seville ( Spain ), confirmed that Biosphere Reserves offer such examples. Biosphere Reserves therefore have a new role to play at the global level. Not only will they be a means for the people who live and work within and around them to attain a balanced relationship with the natural world; they should also explore ways to meet the basic needs of society towards a more sustainable future.

Today, MAB has over 40 years of experience, with 564 Biosphere Reserves in 109 countries, testing and demonstrating approaches to sustainable development.

How are Biosphere Reserves selected?

Biosphere reserves cover the great variety of natural areas of the biosphere, going from high mountains to greatly human-impacted plains, from coastal regions and islands to vast inland forests, from the deserts of the tropics to the tundra of the polar regions. To qualify for designation as a biosphere reserve, an area should normally:

• be representative of a major biogeographic region, including a gradation of human intervention in these systems;

• contain landscapes, ecosystems or animal and plant species, or varieties which need to be conserved;
  
  
• provide an opportunity to explore and demonstrate approaches to sustainable development within the larger region where they are located;
  
  
• be of an appropriate size to serve the three functions of biosphere reserves mentioned above;
  
  
• have an appropriate zoning system, with a legally constituted core area or areas, devoted to long-term protection; a clearly identified buffer zone or zones and an outer transition area