BiospHere Reserves

Biosphere reserves are geographic areas recognized by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and intended to demonstrate how people can live and work in harmony with the natural environment. Prior to designation, these areas are subject to strict scrutiny by UNESCO. Advocates for biosphere reserve status must demonstrate the special ecological, cultural, and social characteristics of the local areas. Although certain locations within a biosphere reserve area may be subject to national or subnational legislation, there is no new regulation imposed by the recognition of the region by UNESCO.

Initially conceived in the 1960s, the first biosphere reserves were created in 1976 under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere program established in 1971. Indeed, many reserves were created in the 1970s. After a quiet period during the 1980s and 1990s, there has been an increase in the rate of designation internationally since 2000. As of May 2008, there were 531 biosphere reserves in 105 countries.

Biosphere reserves are intended to demonstrate three functions: (1) environmental protection, (2) logistical provisioning for scientific research and education, and (3) sustainable resource use. Over the years, the emphasis placed on each of these functions has changed. In the late 1960s, the greatest emphasis was placed on environmental protection through scientific research and the application of its results. Promoters of biosphere reserves, typically natural scientists, believed that modern science would help local people establish rational methods of resource use that would help them conserve the world's biodiversity. By the early 1980s, UNESCO indicated that biosphere reserves were to serve as field laboratories, which would help find solutions to the problems facing local populations, and indeed, the global community.

During the 1980s, however, there was a growing realization that ecosystem conservation was directly connected to development. This realization was given greater impact with the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future, in 1987. Particularly in developing countries, there was a growing idea that biosphere reserves should be used to promote “ecodevelopment” strategies that would also meet the basic needs of local communities. There was also concern that natural science research should be accompanied by social science research that would find ways to improve cooperation and communication among researchers, resource managers, and local residents living in and near biosphere reserves. Thus, the “sustainable resource use” function became a higher priority.

This priority was given greater force with the Seville Strategy of 1995, an outcome of the Second UNESCO International Conference on Biosphere Reserves. The strategy noted that the purpose of biosphere reserves was to include social and cultural dimensions into environmental management. The strategy also suggested that biosphere reserves should help people who live and work within them by demonstrating how to attain a sustainable future. These considerations illustrate an increased emphasis on addressing cultural and development considerations in both the establishment and the management of biosphere reserves.

To address the three functions, biosphere reserves contain three zones: (1) a core that must be protected, typically by national legislation; (2) a buffer where research and recreation use compatible with ecological protection are allowed; and (3) a transition zone where sustainable resource use is practiced. In some countries, the outer zone is also referred to as an area of cooperation. Thus, biosphere reserves retain some form of protected area at their core, but they must also incorporate adjacent areas and the inhabited surrounding “working landscapes” to demonstrate how they integrate conservation with sustainable development. Biosphere reserves are typically established on the basis of watersheds or other landscape-level features that extend beyond the boundaries of local human communities.

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