The scientific value of UNESCO biosphere reserves

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched its Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme in 1971, with its ‘biosphere reserve’ concept instituted 5 years thereafter. The aim of the MAB Programme is to improve the relationship between people and their natural environment and provides an explicitly people-centred conservation approach that emphasises the synergies and trade-offs between environmental ‘preservation’ and environmental ‘use’. These synergies, i.e. linking people and nature in pursuit of development goals, are being executed in landscapes designated as biosphere reserves. Sites are listed in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) and organised into regional networks in order to improve networking and collaboration.

South Africa is a member of AfriMAB (regional MAB network for sub-Saharan Africa) and is the current coordinator of the southern Africa sub-regional network.

The WNBR currently numbers 701 in 124 countries. All sites enable three complementary functions: conservation (of landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic variation), sustainable development (fostering economic development which is ecologically and socio-culturally sustainable), and logistic support (promoting research, monitoring, education and training), achieved through a graduated spatial zonation of permissible use (Figure 1). Biosphere reserves have been established across a wide range of landscapes and habitats, from the largest, North-east Greenland Biosphere Reserve of 97 200 000 ha, to the diminutive 905 ha coverage of And Atoll Biosphere Reserve, part of the Federated States of Micronesia. Despite differing in size and location, all sites are operationalised according to UNESCO’s global policy objectives, and therefore constitute a very valuable resource of similarly managed sites that can be used to conduct scientific research.