ABSTRACT
UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BRs) are designated areas in geographical regions of global socio-ecological significance. This definitive book shows their global relevance and contribution to environmental protection, biocultural diversity and education.
Initiated in the 1970s as part of UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme, BRs share a set of common objectives, to support and demonstrate a balance between biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and research. The world’s 701 BRs form an international, intergovernmental network to support the aims of sustainability science, but this purpose has not always been widely understood. In three distinct sections, the book starts by outlining the origins of BRs and the MAB Programme, showing how they contribute to advancing sustainable development. The second section documents the evolution of BRs around the world, including case studies from each of the five UNESCO world regions. Each case study demonstrates how conservation, sustainable development and the role of scientific research have been interpreted locally. The book concludes by discussing thematic lessons to help understand the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainability science, providing a unique platform from which lessons can be learned. This includes how concepts become actions on the ground and how ideas can be taken up across sites at differing scales.
This book will be of great interest to professionals engaged in conservation and sustainable development, NGOs, policy-makers and advanced students in environmental management, ecology, sustainability science, environmental anthropology and geography.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|16 pages
Conceptual and practical foundations of the international Man and the Biosphere Programme
chapter 3|16 pages
Biosphere reserves from Seville, 1995, to building a new world for 2030
part II|14 pages
Translation and transitions: the changing practices of biosphere reserves
chapter 5|15 pages
The Chilean biosphere reserves network as a model for sustainability?
chapter 8|12 pages
Meeting the challenge of sustainable development
chapter 10|10 pages
The more institutional models, the more challenges
chapter 13|12 pages
Sustainability at the centres of origin
chapter 14|14 pages
Innovative implementation of the UNESCO MAB Programme in South Africa
chapter 17|15 pages
The Man and the Biosphere Programme in China
part III|13 pages
Lessons for sustainability: science and sustainability in practice