SECTION 1 - ECOLOGY IN CITIES: MAN-MADE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS SECTION 2 - ECOLOGY IN CITIES: PATTERNS OF URBAN BIODIVERSITY SECTION 3 - ECOLOGY IN CITIES: PROCESSES AFFECTING URBAN BIODIVERSITY SECTION 4 - ECOSYSTEMS, ECOSYSTEM SERVICES, AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS IN URBAN LANDSCAPES SECTION 5 - URBAN DESIGN, PLANNING, AND MANAGEMENT: LESSONS FROM ECOLOGY

Urban Ecology: Patterns, Processes, and Applications

National park and reserve planning to protect biological diversity: some basic elements

The Biosphere Reserve (BR) model of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme reflects a shift towards more accountable conservation. Biosphere Reserves attempt to reconcile environmental protection with sustainable development; they explicitly acknowledge humans, and human interests in the conservation landscape while still maintaining the ecological values of existing protected areas. Conceptually, this model is attractive, with 610 sites currently designated globally. Yet the practical reality of implementing dual 'conservation' and 'development' goals is challenging, with few examples successfully conforming to the model's full criteria. Here, we review the history of Biosphere Reserves from first inception in 1974 to the current status quo, and examine the suitability of the designation as an effective conservation model. We track the spatial expansion of Biosphere Reserves globally, assessing the influence of the Statutory Framework of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves and Seville strategy in 1995, when the BR concept refocused its core objectives on sustainable development. We use a comprehensive range of case studies to discuss conformity to the Programme, the social and ecological consequences associated with implementation of the designation, and challenges in aligning conservation and development. Given that the 'Biosphere Reserve' label is a relatively unknown designation in the public arena, this review also provides details on popularising the Biosphere Reserve brand, as well as prospects for further research, currently unexploited, but implicit in the designation.

Reviewing Biosphere Reserves globally: effective conservation action or bureaucratic label?

Imagination is indispensable to scientific achievement, even more so to the emerging field of “Earth System Analysis” (Esa). Imagine ... that astronomers were warning us of a huge asteroid heading towards our planet. The collision was supposed to occur in some twenty years from now, but neither the date of the impact nor its site could be predicted with satisfactory precision at this point in time. From the already available approximate knowledge of the celestial maverick’s mass and orbital parameters it could be inferred, however, that the collision energy would correspond to an explosion of at least 10 gigatons of Tnt.

M. M. Holland

Papers

Unesco's Man and the Biosphere Program