UNESCO Man Research Articles

Biosphere Reserves as model regions for transdisciplinarity? A literature review

AbstractThe World Network of Biosphere Reserves promotes learning sites for sustainable development, designated under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere programme (MAB). The programme aims to strengthen biodiversity conservation, economic development and capacity building. Scientific research in and about Biosphere Reserves is expected to support these objectives. In response to a strong focus on natural sciences and conservation issues, calls for transdisciplinary approaches emanated from science and the newest MAB Lima Action Plan. Yet, the extent and contributions of transdisciplinary research in Biosphere Reserves remains unexplored. This study provides a comprehensive and systematic screening of 3304 scientific publications in and about Biosphere Reserves published since 1975. Research within Biosphere Reserves spans a broad spectrum, encompassing social to political to ecological investigations, with a focus on natural sciences and studies conducted mainly in Europe and Asia. We identified an emerging field of transdisciplinary science in research, represented in 336 publications. Most transdisciplinary studies were conducted in Mexican and Indian Biosphere Reserves. While transdisciplinary research provided insights about participation, management and governance in Biosphere Reserves, its transformative potential could be enhanced, notably through stronger forms of participation of non-academic actors in research processes. Our review suggests strengthening knowledge co-creation about transformative solutions and interventions addressing deep leverage points. Scientific research could thereby enhance the role of Biosphere Reserves as model regions for sustainability transformations.

Machine learning for cyanobacteria inversion via remote sensing and AlgaeTorch in the Třeboň fishponds, Czech Republic

Cyanobacteria blooms in fishponds, driven by climate change and anthropogenic activities, have become a critical concern for aquatic ecosystems worldwide. The diversity in fishpond sizes and fish densities further complicates their monitoring. This study addresses the challenge of accurately predicting cyanobacteria concentrations in turbid waters via remote sensing, hindered by optical complexities and diminished light signals. A comprehensive dataset of 740 sampling points was compiled, encompassing water quality metrics (cyanobacteria levels, total chlorophyll, turbidity, total cell count) and spectral data obtained through AlgaeTorch, alongside Sentinel-2 reflectance data from three Třeboň fishponds (UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve) in the Czech Republic over 2022–2023. Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) and three machine learning algorithms, Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), were developed based on seasonal and annual data volumes. The SVM algorithm demonstrated commendable performance on the one-year data validation dataset from the Svět fishpond for the prediction of cyanobacteria, reflected by the key performance indicators: R2 = 0.88, RMSE = 15.07 μg Chl-a/L, and RPD = 2.82. Meanwhile, SVM displayed steady results in the unified one-year validation dataset from Naděje, Svět, and Vizír fishponds, with metrics showing R2 = 0.56, RMSE = 39.03 μg Chl-a/L, RPD = 1.50. Thus, Sentinel data proved viable for seasonal cyanobacteria monitoring across different fishponds. Overall, this study presents a novel approach for enhancing the precision of cyanobacteria predictions and long-term ecological monitoring in fishponds, contributing significantly to the water quality management strategies in the Třeboň region.

Elasmobranch diversity around the southern Caribbean island of Tobago: opportunities for conservation in a regional trade hub

Abstract Sharks are scarce in much of the Caribbean due to widespread depletion. Trinidad and Tobago, in the southern Caribbean, is a shark meat consumer and international exporter of dried shark fins. Despite limited fisheries management there is a small Marine Protected Area (MPA; 7 km2) in urbanised southwest Tobago, but its effect on sharks and rays (elasmobranchs) is unknown. The rural northeast is a recently designated UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Reserve with a significant marine component and plans for a large MPA, but no baseline data for elasmobranchs exist. Given the local importance of elasmobranchs and a newly drafted Sustainable Shark and Ray Management Plan, we used baited remote underwater video stations within a 40 m depth contour at 270 randomly generated points around Tobago to: (i) establish a baseline of species richness and relative abundance, (ii) investigate the influence of season, habitat relief, depth and water temperature on relative abundance, and (iii) investigate spatial variation in relative abundance. Caribbean reef sharks, nurse sharks, and southern stingrays were observed at all sites, the latter two more frequently in the urbanised southwest. Shark diversity was unexpectedly high in the northeast, driven by rarer species (sharpnose, smoothhound, tiger, scalloped hammerhead, great hammerhead) only observed there. Habitat relief, depth and season likely influence relative abundance of elasmobranchs around Tobago, but research is needed to elucidate species-level effects. Shark species richness in northeast Tobago is high for the Caribbean, warranting research attention, while the larger MPA presents an opportunity to strengthen elasmobranch management.

Global knowledge–action networks at the frontlines of sustainability: Insights from five decades of science for action in UNESCO's World Network of biosphere reserves

Abstract Generating actionable knowledge to meet current sustainability challenges requires unprecedented collaboration across scales, geographies, cultures and knowledges. Intergovernmental programmes and place‐based knowledge–action networks have much potential to mobilize sustainability transformation. Although many research fields have benefited from research networks and comparative sites, the potential of site‐based research networks for generating knowledge at the people–nature interface has yet to be fully explored. This article presents the World Network of biosphere reserves (WNBR) of UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Programme, intentionally established for generating actionable knowledge through comparative sites envisioned as learning spaces for sustainable development. Drawing on experiences over five decades, and we offer six categories of insights. Our intent is to share the story of this network widely, distil the learnings from the network to enhance its potential to support both knowledge co‐production and collaborative action for sustainability and inform wider efforts to establish place‐based sustainability networks aimed at improving human–environment relations through knowledge and action. The WNBR has generated insights on the challenges of creating and supporting an international and inter‐governmental sustainability network to generate and mobilize place‐based interdisciplinary knowledge in the long term. Despite the challenges, site‐ and place‐based research facilitated by this network has been fundamental in creating space for sustainability science, knowledge co‐production and transdisciplinary research at the human–nature interface. We share insights on pathways to the implementation of global sustainability agendas through local networks, and the role of research in supporting learning and experimentation in local sites as they work to adapt global sustainability goals. Research in the WNBR has generated deeper understanding on social–ecological complexity and resilience in place‐based sustainability initiatives, and how collaborative platforms might facilitate collective action across landscapes. The network continues to offer a fundamental learning space on operationalizing pluralistic approaches to biodiversity conservation, for example, through its focus on biocultural diversity, offering a key opportunity for the implementation of the post‐2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. We conclude by arguing that WNBR, and similar place‐based knowledge–action networks, can support interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research related to human–nature relationships and provide opportunities for comparative research that may yield more explanatory power than individual case studies. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Integrating payment for ecosystem services in protected areas governance: The case of the Po Delta Park

The effective inclusion of Ecosystem Services (ES) in the governance of Protected Areas (PAs) is a key challenge for future environmental governance. In this sense, Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) have been conceived as instruments to internalize costs of environmental management and establish a consequential link between ES users and providers. Thus, while there is a current pressingly need for genuine PES mechanisms, in very rare cases it has been possible to satisfy this requirement. This paves the way for the study of alternative methods, such as PES-like schemes, which may be already in practice in PAs.In order to support and discuss the feasibility of this approach, we present four successful PES-like schemes currently working in the Po River delta Park of the Emilia-Romagna region (Northern Italy). They involve traditional activities, as hunting, fishing, mushroom and truffle (M&T) picking and cultural services, coherent with the UNESCO Man and Biosphere declaration.With the aim of using the peculiar case of the Po Delta Park as a study model, we studied services with direct market value that cover a variety of strategy cases and positive side effects typically observed in genuine PES schemes. The Park authority is a crucial actor with different roles: i) regulator/intermediator in the context of a “command” strategy (for hunting and M&T) and in a public–private partnership (for cultural services) and ii) provider in a trade context (for fishing).Although not originally conceived under the vision of an ES approach, these practices, developed as endogenous processes, were effective in supporting conservation and ES provision. While not accounting for regulating services, PES-like schemes constitute practical evidence of broad interest concerning the role of existing, yet overlooked, mechanisms involving important ES, which could be reframed within the terminology of PES to strengthen their functioning and strategic value.

Editorial It is about life: 50 years of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme

Editorial It is about life: 50 years of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme

Participatory mapping reveals biocultural and nature values in the shared landscape of a Nordic UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

Abstract Making the right decisions for sustainable development requires sound knowledge of the values and spatial distribution of the services co‐produced by ecosystems and people. UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere programme and associated Biosphere Reserves (BRs) are key learning sites or model regions for sustainable development providing key entry points for transdisciplinary work on sustainable development. However, there is limited research exploring spatial distribution of socio‐cultural Ecosystem Service (ES) values in BRs and how those values vary according to the BR zonation. We used a transdisciplinary approach to design and implement a public participation geographical information systems (PPGIS) survey in a recently designated BR to (a) asses the spatial distribution of ES values in the different zones, (b) identify hotspots of ES values, (c) identify spatial bundles of ES values and (d) assess the social‐ecological characteristics that determine the distribution of those values. We found that stakeholders identify high biocultural ES values, mapping predominantly places for outdoor recreation, biodiversity, agricultural products and cultural heritage. Buffer zones had high agricultural and cultural heritage values while extractive values were largely absent from cores zones. We identified five spatial ES‐value bundles highlighting distinct places important for ES values related to ‘multifunctional landscapes’ located close to settlements, ‘cultural landscapes’ associated with agricultural land, ‘wild animal resources’ along the coastlines, ‘outdoor recreation and biodiversity’ and ‘passive cultural values’ widely distributed in high and moderately populated areas. We found that accessibility was important for ES values and that people value nature close to where they live. We show the importance of biocultural values in the region, and agricultural landscapes were highly valued for multiple ES values beyond agricultural products alone. We show that BRs have become places that link cultural heritage, agricultural and biodiversity values in multifunctional landscapes. We put our findings into the local context and suggest how they can inform land‐use planning and management through policies aimed at maintaining key agricultural landscapes that provide social‐ecological resilience. Additionally, we discuss the value of our study for the wider BR network and how similar work can contribute to monitoring of BR implementation. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Butterflies, organized crime, and “sad trees”: A critique of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve Program in a context of rural violence

• UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) zoning generates frontier regions that are fertile ground for Organized Crime. • Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve Program of Ecosystem Services incentivizes local patrols to fight Organized Crime. • Crime is associated with NAFTA’s avocado market in the MAB area. • Acknowledging Traditional Ecological practices inside this reserve is necessary. The conservation of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is rearranging the rural landscapes of Michoacán and Estado de México, Mexico. Based on ethnographic and historical data, and combining insights from the green security and neoliberal conservation literatures, this paper examines how monarch butterfly conservation unfolds in an area shaped by a recent designation as a UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Reserve as well as increasing violence associated with the Mexican Drug War. I argue that these processes are deeply interconnected. I show how the conservation program, and the broader neoliberal project of which it is part, have undermined social control of land by converting communally managed forests into a supposedly human-free reserve. This has transformed the region into a frontier zone that facilitates the increased presence of organized crime groups and devolves responsibility for forest security to local residents. I show how the monarch reserve’s core and buffer land boundary, and the human and nonhuman divide underpinning it, reconfigures authority in ways that deepen the control of organized crime, facilitate the expansion of il/licit economies, and undermine sustainable community forest management. While international conservation actors view the reserve as the best strategy for preventing the disappearance of the monarch's migratory phenomenon, my analysis concludes that the MAB has increased the risk of disappearance of both its butterfly and human inhabitants. As an alternative to conventional conservation strategies designed to separate human and nonhuman nature, principles from nondualist traditional ecological ethics can inform better pathways for protecting both the region’s humans and nonhumans.

It is about life: 50 years of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme

It is about life: 50 years of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme

MOUNTAIN REGIONS OF RUSSIA: RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. THE KEY ROLE OF THE UNESCO MAB-6 MOUNTAIN PROJECT

Project No. 6 "Human Impact on Mountain Ecosystems" of the UNESCO "Man and the Biosphere" Program had its own peculiarities of implementation, both in the international and in the Russian context. It went far beyond environmental problems and was initially focused on the sustainable mountain development issues, assessing the impact of global changes on the mountain environment, economy, and population. Fragile mountain areas occupy a special position in the global Agenda 21 and national strategies for regional development. The specificity of the Soviet and Russian experience in the development and evolution of the MAB-6 project and the role of mountain biosphere reserves in Russia in the preservation of biological and cultural heritage are considered. The adoption in 2020 by the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly of the Model Law "On the Development and Protection of Mountainous Territories of the CIS" opens up new prospects for the development of mountain regions and testifies to the relevance of scientific approaches laid in the foundation of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program and the MAB-6 mountain project, in particular.

BAIKAL REGION IN THE UNESCO “MAN AND BIOCPHERE” PROGRAMME

The main objective of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program is to ensure a balance between the responsibility of humankind to preserve nature and its biological diversity and the need of natural resource exploitation by human being to improve the social and economic well-being of people. Biosphere reserves are recommended as representative objects for the conservation of biological diversity and, in general, ecological systems. The world network of Biosphere reserves in 2020 included 714 Biosphere reserves in 129 countries, in Russia there are 46 of them. They also act as models for achieving the goals and objectives of sustainable development of territories. The tasks include research related to climate change and the response of natural processes to these changes, implementation of space and cartographic monitoring of nature, educational activities and activities aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change. Research on the relationship between man and the biosphere in the Baikal region was carried out with an integrated environmentally oriented planning and use of lands, water and biological resources. For the Lake Baikal World Natural Heritage Site, we have carried out territorial planning and zoning, as well as determined the ecological potential of the landscapes of the Baikal natural territory.

The impacts of trust, cost and risk on collaboration in environmental governance

Abstract Collaborative approaches to environmental governance are drawing increased interest in research and practice. In this article we investigate the structure and functioning of actor networks engaged in collaboration. We specifically seek to advance understanding of how and why collaborative networks are formed as actors engage in addressing two broad classes of collective action problems: coordination and cooperation. It has been proposed that more risk‐prone cooperative problems favour denser and more cohesive bonding network structures, whereas less risky coordination problems favour sparser and more centralized bridging structures. Recent empirical findings, however, cast some doubts on these assumptions. In building on previous work we propose and evaluate a set of propositions in order to remedy these ambiguities. Our propositions build on the assumption that bridging structures could, if actors experience sufficient levels of trust in the collaborative process, adequately support both cooperation and coordination problems. Our empirical investigation of four UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserves gives initial support for our assumptions, and suggests that bridging structures emerge when actors have trust in the collaborative endeavour, and/or when the cost of collaborative failure is deemed low. While caution is warranted due to data limitations, our findings contribute to improved policies and guidelines on how to stimulate and facilitate more effective collaborative approaches to environmental governance. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

GIS and land cover-based assessment of ecosystem services in the North Karelia Biosphere Reserve, Finland

Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, ecosystems and their services are key principles behind the establishment of “Biosphere Reserves”. Mapping of ecosystem services is one of the activities that is expected to increase the knowledge of sustainable land use planning. The Biosphere Reserves, established by the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme, aims to find the balance between nature conservation, use of natural resources, recreation and other culture-related activities. For this purpose, the ecosystem services approach is a promising tool for examining the relationships between people and nature in practice. This study applies the ecosystem services approach and examines which ecosystem services are perceived to be relevant in the North Karelia Biosphere Reserve in Eastern Finland. The results of a matrix method, with expert-based approach, showed that particularly old-growth forests and undrained open and forested mires have a broader potential to provide different ecosystem services. Water and urban areas are considered important for cultural services. However, these areas cover only a relatively small area altogether. The results of the ecosystem services assessment were compared to areas of high biodiversity, as defined by local biodiversity experts. The areas with high capacity for ecosystem services provision (from now on “high ecosystem services areas”) were found in areas with high biodiversity. In most cases, these areas are already under protection. The results also showed that ambiguity is an issue with the use of the ecosystem services concept in both stakeholder and expert evaluations.

Biosphere-oriented urbanization and UNESCO program “Man and the Biosphere”

Metropolitan area urbanization leads to increased pressure on the biosphere and the inability to reproduce the healthy population. Development of society in the future can go in two ways: technological and biosphere. Biosphere direction involves the development of the biosphere-oriented urban planning as a means of resolving the biosphere-social crisis. This will allow on the one hand to ensure the reproduction of biologically and mentally healthy population, and on the other to preserve and develop biocoenoses in areas where infrastructure for life and economic activities of people should be organized. The main condition for the preservation and development of the biocoenoses is the existence a network of nature reserves in the region. Design settlements should be carried out as a landscape and estate settlement with houses providing comfortable family life of several generations under one roof. The concept of biosphere-oriented urbanization and UNESCO biosphere reserves complement each other and may use common approaches. At the present time it is necessary to create one conceptual basis for the social-economic development based on those two independent concepts. It must take into consideration the conservation of biosphere that is aimed to develop intellectual and creative potential of every person. Biosphere-oriented urban planning with UNESCO Man and Biosphere concepts is the only way of existence and development where it is possible to conserve cultural and natural heritage of the humanity and share it with the future generations.

Take Stock Bali Island as the Potential of Biosphere Reserve Site

Adopting biosphere reserves, BRs in the area with local protected area and international designated area will embrace the community involvement to support its biosphere stewardship function. It is argued that the community with a strong social capital as well as strong traditional ecological knowledge and culture will contribute to strengthen the conservation efforts by providing more opportunity at the local level through the specific zonation of the UNESCO Man And Biosphere, MAB program. By using the Bali Island as a case study, the study analyses to what extent the potential of Bali island as a Biosphere Reserves, BRs site by take stock the natural resources, governance of the conservation park as well as the human cultural and social capital aspect. The latest has been recognised as crucial element to develop social enterprise and entrepreneurs as stated in the Lima Action plan to deliver Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs 2030 in BRs site. Hence, the paper found out the three sites in Bali island, the two are the important international designated sites; the Bali island cultural landscape as a manifestation of Tri Hita Karana in Subak system by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO World Heritage Site and the West Bali National Park protected area category II by the International Union for Conservation Nature, IUCN and the last is the national park of Monkey Forest in Ubud as the initial assessment of take stock Bali BRs. Nevertheless, the study found the manifestation of Balinese philosophy, Tri Hita Karana or ‘Three Sources of Wellbeing’ which represents the existence pluralistic collectivism actions at the local level has potential to accommodate the adaptive governance crucial to manage the commons in biosphere reserve. Finally, the paper came up with the conceptual model of proposed Bali BRs that accommodate the natural capital as well as the social capital in zonation concept of BRs. However, further detail study on the ecosystem services functions and sustainable livelihood need to be conducted to support the nomination of Bali Island as the future biosphere reserve.

In Situ Hyperspectral Remote Sensing for Monitoring of Alpine Trampled and Recultivated Species

Vegetation, through its condition, reflects the properties of the environment. Heterogeneous alpine ecosystems play a critical role in global monitoring systems, but due to low accessibility, cloudy conditions, and short vegetation periods, standard monitoring methods cannot be applied comprehensively. Hyperspectral tools offer a variety of methods based on narrow-band data, but before extrapolation to an airborne or satellite scale, they must be verified using plant biometrical variables. This study aims to assess the condition of alpine sward dominant species (Agrostis rupestris, Festuca picta, and Luzula alpino-pilosa) of the UNESCO Man&Biosphere Tatra National Park (TPN) where the high mountain grasslands are strongly influenced by tourists. Data were analyzed for trampled, reference, and recultivated polygons. The field-obtained hyperspectral properties were verified using ground measured photosynthetically active radiation, chlorophyll content, fluorescence, and evapotranspiration. Statistically significant changes in terms of cellular structures, chlorophyll, and water content in the canopy were detected. Lower values for the remote sensing indices were observed for trampled plants (about 10–15%). Species in recultivated areas were characterized by a similar, or sometimes improved, spectral properties than the reference polygons; confirmed by fluorescence measurements (Fv/Fm). Overall, the fluorescence analysis and remote sensing tools confirmed the suitability of such methods for monitoring species in remote mountain areas, and the general condition of these grasslands was determined as good.

Bruno Messerli, 1931–2019

Bruno Messerli was a pioneering geographer and an exceptional person. Although he spent almost all of his long academic career – more than six decades from student to Professor Emeritus – based at the Institute of Geography at the University of Bern, his impacts have gone far beyond Switzerland and geography. Bruno's doctoral and postdoctoral research, from 1958 to 1976, focused on the glacial and post-glacial history of the mountains around the Mediterranean and down into the Sahara – a focus on (past) glaciers and arid mountains to which he returned soon before retirement during his last field projects (1988–1996) in the high Andes of the Atacama. In between, he played leading roles in many major interdisciplinary projects. The first of these was the Swiss element of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, which he directed, together with Paul Messerli (unrelated) from 1977 to 1986. Overlapping this, he was the co-manager of the United Nations University's (UNU) project on Highland-Lowland Interactive Systems (later, Mountain Geoecology and Sustainable Development; 1979–1991), together with Jack Ives. Jack and Bruno's partnership had started earlier, in the International Geographical Union's Mountain Commission; they alternated as chairs from 1972 to 1996. A primary outcome of the UNU work in Nepal was their co-authored book The Himalayan dilemma: Reconciling development and conservation (1989), which used detailed field research to analyse the “Myth of Himalayan Degradation.” Bruno continued this work with Thomas Hofer, resulting in the 2006 book Floods in Bangladesh: History, dynamics and rethinking the role of the Himalayas. The impact of the Messerli-Ives partnership went well beyond academia. The work they led in Nepal showed that many of the myths about Himalayan degradation, often quoted by politicians and in the media, were incorrect. In the early 1990s, their focus turned to the global stage, when they recognised–together with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation–that the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 would present a unique opportunity to get mountains on the stage. The result of concerted diplomatic and scientific effort was Chapter 13, on “Sustainable mountain development,” in “Agenda 21,” the plan of action deriving from this global meeting. Bruno continued to play a key role in keeping mountains on the global agenda, including the publication (again with Jack Ives) of Mountains of the world: A global priority in 1997 and a series of reports until 2002. Key outcomes of these continuing efforts were the declaration of the year 2002 as the International Year of Mountains and, since then, 11 December as International Mountain Day. In addition to his activities in research and advocacy, Bruno played many other important roles. At the University of Bern, he was a gifted teacher and mentor who enthused thousands of students and supervised 35 PhD and 104 Master's theses, and served as Rector of the University in 1986–7. He had national roles with the Swiss University Conference, Research Council and Swiss National Science Foundation. After his official retirement in 1996, he became President of the International Geographical Union (1996–2000) and Co-Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme's project on Past Global Changes (PAGES; 1996–2001), and then continued in other roles with the International Foundation of Science and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), which he had helped to establish in 1983. Bruno's remarkable contributions were recognised in many ways. In Switzerland, he was awarded the Doron Prize and the Marcel-Benoist Prize and, internationally, numerous awards–including the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), the Mountain Award of the King Albert I Memorial Foundation, and the Prix Vautrin Lud, the “Nobel of Geography”–as well as honorary doctorates from the University of Innsbruck and the Free University of Berlin. All of the above underlines Bruno's energy and remarkable professional achievements. Yet he was also a man who was deeply committed to his family–his wonderful wife, Beatrice, to whom he was married for 55 years, his four children, and his nine grandchildren–and he enjoyed the mountains, music, and good food and drink. Though his roots were in the Swiss Canton of Bern, he was a consummate professional geographer and interdisciplinary scientist who has made a real difference to thousands of people around the world and, through his publications and the work of his family and everyone else he mentored and worked with, will continue to do so.

Sustainable Management of Wetlands: A case study of the Songor Ramsar and UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve in Ghana

This study on the Songor Ramsar and UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve in Ghana seeks to ascertain management method to promote sustainable management of wetlands. The findings clearly indicated that good management practices are employed in the management of the Songor Ramsar Site. The current approaches to management have focused on the harmonious fusion of modern scientific strategies and cultural and traditional methods. In the Songor Ramsar and UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve, traditional authorities have enacted traditional rites such as sacred groves and totems in the Ada East District which are strictly enforced to provide traditional regulatory support for their protection while modern conservation approaches in the Songor Wetland management utilizes all the laws in legal protected areas in Ghana. Management also embark on training programmes for users of the wetland resources in sustainable resource utilization to improve economic livelihood. Increased public education and sensitization on the economic importance of the Ramsar Site and the negative impact of environmental degradation has been part of the management strategies. The Public education is on environmentally sound management of waste within the Ramsar Site since the underlying causes of environmental degradation in the Songor Ramsar Site are mainly improper waste disposal, poor attitude of residents toward environmental conservation, wildfires and shoreline recession, inadequate public education on the impact of environmental degradation, fishing, and farming activities. The other factors identified include overgrazing, over exploitation of mangroves, predation, poaching and over fishing, and uncontrolled sand and salt winning

Rural innovations in biosphere reserves – A social network approach

Today, peripheral rural areas are indispensable to achieve global and national conservation goals or a post-carbon transition while simultaneously struggling for quality of life and economic development. Biosphere Reserves have the ambition to overcome this dichotomy of environmental protection and regional development by fostering and upscaling (social) innovations within their World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR). This study explores how these innovations resp. innovative firms and projects are stimulated and embedded in practice. A standardized survey and social network analysis (SNA) with these firms in two Biosphere Reserves reveals that innovations in the peripheral regions are multi-level arrangements where the Biosphere Reserves (1) provide platforms for new ideas and needs, (2) foster the development, funding and diffusion of products or services and (3) act as gatekeepers between actors of different areas and spatial scales. We therefore conclude that the role of the Biosphere Reserve in the two regions goes far beyond the protection of nature, providing the ‘institutional thickness’ for successful regional development. Additionally, they are social innovations themselves, which support the co-production of knowledge and learning. However, if UNESCO's Man and Biosphere program truly wants to have an impact on sustainability transitions, the integration of local actors and their projects into their WNBR has to be their top priority for the future.

History and further tasks of the development of the UNESCO program «Man and the Biosphere» and biosphere reserves network in Russia

The review describes the subject of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program and how the network of Russian biosphere reserves was developed. The MAB Program is designed to coordinate the efforts of scientists from many countries who conduct fundamental research in order to reduce anthropogenic impact and the gap between consumption and conservation. Tendencies of population growth and migration, growing demands for energy and natural resources, globalization of the economy, centralization of management, the difficulty of access to necessary information — all these factors have a direct or indirect impact on the environment, and hence on the prospects for human survival and development. According to UNESCO official documents biosphere reserves are protected zones of a representative terrestrial and coastal environment that have gained international recognition because of their importance for nature protection, scientific knowledge and skills, and the preservation of human values for sustainable development. To date, the World Network of Biosphere Reserves includes 686 such protected areas in 122 countries, including 20 transboundary ones.