UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Programme

The Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) of UNESCO was established in 1971 (same as year of start of Ramsar Convention) to promote interdisciplinary approaches to management, research and education in ecosystem conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.

The MAB programme’s primary achievement is the creation of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves since 1977. This World Network is more than a listing - biosphere reserves exchange knowledge and experiences on sustainable development innovations across country and continent borders - they exist in more than 100 countries all across the world.

Biosphere reserves: They are areas that are supposed to develop innovative approaches, test them and share the results; more importantly to combine many different approaches in a vast diversity of policy and management fields, towards a balanced relationship between mankind and nature.

In order for an area to be included into the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, work on the ground has to have started, appropriate information about the region gathered, the population needs to have agreed. Nominations then are prepared and submitted to UNESCO by national governments, in most cases through MAB national committees. Benefits gained from being part of the network include access to a shared base of knowledge and incentives to integrate conservation, development and scientific research to sustainably manage ecosystems.

MR NATARAJAN ISHWARAN is the current Director, Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences, Secretary, Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme.

Madrid Action Plan:

In order to address these challenges, thus strategically contribute to the achievement of the relevant Millennium Development Goals, the 20th Session of the MAB-ICC and the Third World Congress of Biosphere Reserves adopted the Madrid Action Plan, setting out the following agenda for the MAB Programme for the period 2008–2013:

• develop mechanisms to encourage the sustainable development of biosphere reserves carried out in partnership with all sectors of society to ensure the well-being of people and their environment;
• test and apply policies for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change in coordination with other intergovernmental programmes;
• use the experience of the WNBR, the MAB Networks and interdisciplinary approaches to develop and test policies and practices to address the issues impacting key ecosystem types, namely coastal zones, islands, oceans, mountains, drylands, tropical forests, freshwater ecosystems and areas of increasing urbanization;
• develop scientific programmes of research to follow on from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) to define approaches that secure ecosystem services into the future.