Session C.
The Network of Biosphere Reserves in UNESCO’s MAB Programme:
What Lessons for Territorial Sciences?
Co-chairs: Catherine CIBIEN (MAB France), Raphaël MATHEVET (Centre d’écologie fonctionnelle et évolutive, Montpellier) & Kewan MERTENS (Centre de sociologie de l’innovation)
The new global framework for biodiversity, to be revised and validated at COP15 in December 2022, calls for “at least 30% of terrestrial and marine areas […] to be conserved through systems of protected areas and other effective conservation measures.”
This session aims to bring together researchers in the humanities and social sciences, and in science and technology studies to discuss a specific type of protected areas: the biosphere reserves (BRs) of UNESCO's Man and Biosphere (MAB) programme. Conceived in the 1970s and 1980s as experimental and learning areas for sustainable development, BRs share their experiences within national and international networks. This aim of the MAB system, to reconcile humans and nature through territorialised learning, as well as its principle of zoning the territory, constitute the theme of this session.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of questions to be addressed:
- What does the idea of constituting a “learning laboratory for sustainable development” imply for social sciences, but also for diverse territorial knowledge? Can this learning process be mobilised in different teaching initiatives?
- How do BRs and their experiences contribute to the ecological transformation of territories? What lessons can we learn from past experiences?
- To what extent does the principle of zoning the territory within BRs contribute to reducing various conflicts of use and to generating a sense of belonging in a specific territory?
- The philosophy of reconciling environmental preservation and human activities is also carried by other national and regional structures. What have been the exchanges between the BRs and regional and national parks?
- Since the Seville conference, BRs are supposed to report on the results of their activities during a periodic review every 10 years. In particular, they must report on indicators of progress in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, as well as on the ecosystem services provided by the ecosystems of the BRs. How are these indicators mobilised? What impact do they have on reserve management?
Selected Bibliographical References
Bouamrane M., Mathevet R., Levrel H., Huntington H., Agrawal A., 2017, “Community Participation and Adaptation to Change in Biosphere Reserves: A Review and a Mediterranean European Coastal Wetland Case Study (Rhone Delta Biosphere Reserve, Southern France)”, in D. Armitage, A. Charles and F. Berkes (eds.), Governing the Coastal Commons: Communities, Resilience and Transformation, London, Routledge. p. 120-138.
Bouamrane M., Spierenburg M., Agrawal A., Boureima A., Cormier-Salem M.-C., Etienne M., Le Page C., Levrel H., Mathevet R., 2016, “Stakeholder Engagement and Biodiversity Conservation Challenges in Social-Ecological Systems: Some Insights from Biosphere Reserves in Western Africa and France”, Ecology and Society, 21(4), art. 25.
Garnier L. (ed.), 2008, Entre l’homme et la nature : une démarche pour des relations durables. Réserves de biosphère, Paris, Unesco, “Notes techniques” series, no. 3.
Mathevet R., Cibien C., 2019, “The French Biosphere Reserves: Looking for Ecological Solidarity and Stewardship”, in M. Reed ans M. Price (eds.), Unesco Biosphere Reserves: Supporting Biocultural Diversity, Sustainability and Society, London, Routledge, p. 114-124.
ONU, 2021, Premier projet de cadre mondial de la biodiversité pour l’après-2020. Convention sur la diversité biologique, CBD/WG2020/3/3.
Reed M., Price M. (eds.), 2019, Unesco Biosphere Reserves: Supporting Biocultural Diversity, Sustainability and Society, London, Routledge.
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