ABSTRACT
The understanding of protected areas as coupled human–environment systems is currently at the core of the philosophy of biosphere reserves, which acknowledge that the natural values they contain emerge from the long-term interaction between ecosystems and the societies living in them. However, comprehensive social-ecological approaches that address multiple and complex sustainability challenges are implemented in different intensities and different ways by existing biosphere reserves. The Mediterranean Basin represents an interesting area for the exploration of such dynamics because it is a global hotspot of biodiversity as well as a long history of land use. The basin currently contains 70 biosphere reserves across 15 different countries that face multiple sustainability challenges. We characterize biosphere reserves across the Mediterranean, examining different social-ecological dimensions level of transformation, level of local governance and stakeholder involvement. Our comparison helps describe some of the context-based environmental and socio-cultural properties and drivers of change in the biosphere reserves and suggest provide future directions for investigation and implementation of social-ecological approaches that foster stewardship and transformation to sustainability.
