BBC World News spotlights UNESCO coastal biosphere reserves
BBC World News broadcasts Rising Tides at the following times (GMT):
Friday 6 March at 20:30; Tuesday 10 March at 15:30; Wednesday 11 March at 02:30.
Tune into the BBC World News ‘Earth Report’ series this March for a 22-minute programme on the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) UK-Kenya biosphere twinning project. The programme, entitled ‘Rising Tides’, focuses on responses to climate change in two UNESCO coastal biosphere reserves-Braunton Burrows in Devon, UK and Malindi-Watamu in Kenya.
'Rising Tides' explores how these two internationally ‘twinned’ UNESCO coastal biosphere reserves are working together to find sustainable solutions to common problems as their local communities grapple with the effects of climate change. The ‘twinning’ between these two biosphere reserves is taking place within the framework of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves which includes 531 biosphere reserves in 105 countries. Biosphere reserves combine the conservation of ecosystems, species and landscapes with the promotion of socio-culturally and ecologically sustainable social and human development.
The Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme
The origin of Biosphere Reserves goes back to a conference organised by UNESCO in 1968. This was the first intergovernmental conference examining how to reconcile the conservation and use of natural resources, thereby foreshadowing the present-day notion of sustainable development. The UNESCO MAB Programme was launched in 1978, with a World Network of Biosphere Reserves as its key instrument.
For more information on MAB, click here.
Biosphere reserve teams in Africa and UK are exchanging scientific knowledge, and encouraging stakeholder participation to address the pressures on the "life support systems" of the two areas. The scientists hope that a computer model, programmed with relevant data, will help map climate change scenarios in both Kenya and the UK and will help develop adaptation strategies for the future.
Central to the message of the programme is the notion of sustainable development. How can local communities work with planners and decision-makers to find optimal solutions for the future? What have these two biosphere reserves done together and what will they do in the future?
For more information about the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) UK-Kenya biosphere reserve twinning project, contact Andy Bell, Braunton Burrows Biosphere Reserve, at andrew.bell [at] devon.gov.uk. For information on the North Devon Biosphere Reserve, click here.
Written: 01/03/2009 , last modified: 01/03/2009
