Networking Biosphere Reserves through corridors on the basis of the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (original) (raw)
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Biosphere reserves – learning sites of sustainable development?
2005
Large scale protected areas are considered a promising way of nature protection. Its management, however, depends to a great extent on the way in which potential coflicts between nature protection measures and socioeconomic aspirations of local population are treated. In this context the concept of biosphere reserve, as it was articulated at the UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere (MaB) Conference in Sevilla (1995) and reinforced in Madrid (2008), is suggested as an efficient tool to achieve the consensus among individual stakeholders. In our conditions, the biosphere reserve is as a rule institutionally associated with the administration of a particular area protected according to the Czech environmental legislation. In order to discuss the chance of this concept to be practically implemented, three Czech biosphere reserves, including the Sumava Biosphere Reserve, were analysed in a view of four missions biosphere reserves are expected to fulfill. Results of the analysis suggest that the pr...
Network of Landscapes in the Sustainable Management of Transboundary Biosphere Reserves
Land, 2020
The creation of Transboundary Biosphere Reserves (TBRs) is one of the most outstanding contributions of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB). Recent revisions have shown that there is a gap between its biodiversity conservation proposals and the theoretical convergence of nations towards sustainable development goals with the practices in action. By applying the landscape approach to the case study of the rural system of the Spanish–Portuguese border, declared Meseta Iberica TBR (MITBR), it is verified that the spatial zoning of TBRs is a prominent factor in this gap, since they do not correspond to the landscape units and bioregions. This has led to the formulation and implementation of strategic proposals for the reorientation of TBRs towards the stimulation of landscape networks in the transboundary framework. Agroecological networks in this territory stand out, which brings together one of the highest co...
BIOSPHERE RESERVES AS MODEL SITES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The target of the biosphere reserves recognized under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme is to contribute to sustainable development in the area by assuring sound management, transfer of innovation, decision and policy-making. The World Network of Biosphere Reserves comprises 610 sites in 117 countries. The biosphere reserve concept has shown its importance beyond protected areas and has increasingly been embraced by scientists, planners, policy-makers and local communities to have a variety of knowledge, scientific investigations and experiences to link biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development for human well-being. The focus of biosphere reserves is on developing models for global, national and local sustainability, to serve as learning sites and to work together to translate the global principles of sustainable development into locally relevant praxis. Switzerland launched its new park system with the approval of the Entlebuch Biosphere Reserve in a bottom-up process in 2001. Within 10 years, Switzerland has established the laws, procedures, regulations and funding mechanisms to establish a comprehensive park network. The framework can be considered as a basis for the new generation of model regions for sustainable development. A Model is a “best practice” regarding an integrated approach for sustainable development. It should be attractive, accepted, realistic, easy to understand, visible and tangible, reproducible, measurable and it has to be assessed continuously. The new concept, “Global Regions”, was launched in December 2012. A Global Region is a territorial system, which interlinks environment, society and economy and bases its activities on production cycles on the local biocapacity, particularly the available natural resources. The overall goal is to launch the implementation of sustainable development worldwide.
UNESCO Biosphere Reserve management evaluation: where do we stand and what's next
This article provides the first comprehensive review of the discourse evolution of UNESCO Biosphere Reserve evaluation, relative to the general discourse of Protected Area Management Effectiveness (PAME) evaluation. Using literature review and content analysis, it addresses two main research questions: (1) In light of recent literature, is it still relevant and important to evaluate protected areas and biosphere reserves? (2) To what extent has the Periodic Review (PR), which is the only performance evaluation required by the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere programme, effectively addressed the need for " standard indicators to evaluate the economic, social, and ecological progress made by biosphere reserves " (IUCN 1995)? Using synthetic argumentation, we find first that management effectiveness evaluation is still highly relevant and essential for the effective management and global expansion of protected areas and biosphere reserves networks. Second, the PR report has been a soft evaluation tool that led to improved implementation of the biosphere reserve concept, by tackling mainly the design and planning aspects. However, it lacks results-based indicators that specifically measure delivery of objectives linked to the three functions of biosphere reserves (conservation, sustainable development, and logistic support). Third, the PR tool is not designed to systematically integrate into an adaptive management cycle recommended for biosphere reserves. Drawing from lessons and advancements made in PAME evaluation, we conclude with targeted recommendations for the improvement of biosphere reserve management evaluation, in the perspective of enhancing their contribution to the global sustainable development goals.
Reviewing Biosphere Reserves globally: effective conservation action or bureaucratic label?
Biological Reviews, 2013
The Biosphere Reserve (BR) model of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme reflects a shift towards more accountable conservation. Biosphere Reserves attempt to reconcile environmental protection with sustainable development; they explicitly acknowledge humans, and human interests in the conservation landscape while still maintaining the ecological values of existing protected areas. Conceptually, this model is attractive, with 610 sites currently designated globally. Yet the practical reality of implementing dual 'conservation' and 'development' goals is challenging, with few examples successfully conforming to the model's full criteria. Here, we review the history of Biosphere Reserves from first inception in 1974 to the current status quo, and examine the suitability of the designation as an effective conservation model. We track the spatial expansion of Biosphere Reserves globally, assessing the influence of the Statutory Framework of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves and Seville strategy in 1995, when the BR concept refocused its core objectives on sustainable development. We use a comprehensive range of case studies to discuss conformity to the Programme, the social and ecological consequences associated with implementation of the designation, and challenges in aligning conservation and development. Given that the 'Biosphere Reserve' label is a relatively unknown designation in the public arena, this review also provides details on popularising the Biosphere Reserve brand, as well as prospects for further research, currently unexploited, but implicit in the designation.
Biosphere Reserves: An “Enabling Space” for Communities
The Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity
This article considers the challenge of socioeconomic development within biosphere reserves (BRs). How to achieve compatibility between human activities in BRs has not been considered in detail. Part of the issue is methodological; BRs have common aims, but greatly differ in terms of their contextual elements. We identify a number of "spaces" that differentiate BRs and organisational solutions that can be consistent with social and natural "justice". Social capital, the supporting values and links that determine the ability of community members to cooperate is seen as critical across the spatial dimension of our framework. The paper also explores a practice-based approach to assess emerging development themes and policy intervention applied in Cat Ba Island, Vietnam.
Concept and practice: the case of UNESCO biosphere reserves
International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2008
Sustainable development is a globally endorsed principle whose practice is multidimensional and complex. The biosphere reserve as a concept and a tool of UNESCO has an origin in the protected areas domain but has now evolved into an international designation that allows context-specific conservation and development relationships to be developed in land and seascapes where more than 80% of the designated area lies outside of legally protected core zones. As such, each biosphere reserve could be a context-specific experiment in sustainable development at varying scales. The origin and evolution of the concept and practice of biosphere reserves have lessons to offer for future efforts to track changes in the principle and practices of sustainable development. The emphasis, over the next 5-10 years on biosphere reserves as learning laboratories for sustainable development provides interesting opportunities to track such changes in site-specific application of the principle and practices of sustainable development.
Environmental Science & Policy, 2002
The past three decades have seen major changes in concepts of conservation, particularly the realisation that people living around 'protected areas' should play participatory roles in their management. Since 1974, the evolving biosphere reserve concept has foreshadowed these broader changes, most recently through the introduction of a periodic review process included in the 1995 Statutory Framework for the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR). This paper briefly outlines the development of the concept and its implementation, presents the periodic review process, describes its application in the United Kingdom (UK), and concludes with some implications for the future.
Biosphere reserves: special places for people and nature
Environmental Science & Policy, 2002
Before understanding how to protect and manage particular ecological systems, an understanding of its cultural context is necessary. The term cultural landscape, referring to the interaction between cultural influences and nature, is often used to describe this context. Many elements of human culture, including language and knowledge, both shape and are shaped by the landscape in which the culture exists. Presently there are multiple examples of biosphere reserves in which biological and cultural diversity are mutually reinforcing; taking this interaction into account is key when determining how to develop sustainable environments into the future. Biosphere reserves are a powerful tool for helping people achieve sustainability, especially as they are inherently models of the ecosystem approach for the convention on biological diversity.
Biosphere reserves—An attempt to form sustainable landscapes
Landscape and Urban Planning, 2008
Established under the UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, biosphere reserves represent protected areas intended to demonstrate well-balanced relationship between conservation of biodiversity and an appropriate local development. They can be thus considered as an attempt to form sustainable landscape. As sustainable development is a human-centred concept the article contributes primarily to the discussion on social part of the nature-social relationship, namely on quality of life of local population and problems of social acceptance of biodiversity conservation measures. Triangulation approach was applied as a fundamental frame for empirical data analysis, combining analysis of official statistical data, content analysis of regional media, semi-standardized interviews with key personalities and extensive questionnaire survey. Three Czech biosphere reserves were used as model areas. Based on results gained it is possible to state that the concept of biosphere reserve itself can be used as a model when we try to implement ideas of sustainable landscape in practice. However, while quality of life did not seem to be much affected by the fact that people lived in protected areas, full harmonization of biodiversity protection and socio-economic development were hindered by constraints of formal and legislative nature.