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«CURRENT EVENTS»
CONFERENCE
"COASTAL AND MARITIME BIOSPHERE RESERVES IN THE EUROMAB REGION"
The conference was conducted by the Finnish South-Western Regional
Environmental Centre in collaboration with the Finnish MAB Committee
and other organisations. It took place on October 22-25 2003 in Nagu
(south-western Finland) and in Archipelago Sea Biosphere Area Reserve.
About 50 experts from 13 European countries participated in the conference.
The Russian delegation participated in the conference thanks to support
from the Moscow UNESCO Bureau.
A broad range of issues related to the management of coastal and maritime
biosphere reserves in the EuroMAB region (that includes more than 200
reserves in Palearctic countries), evaluation of their performance and
experience, and collaboration perspectives were discussed at the conference.
Participants of the conference have noted that about one half of the
Europeans live closer than 50 km to seashores and the maximal pressure,
therefore, falls upon resources of the coastal-maritime zone; conflicts
between various social structures arise here frequently. Biosphere reserves
designated to fulfil multipurpose tasks in various ecological and socio-economic
situations and having relevant zonation schemes could be uses as polygons
for testing constructive resolution methods for such conflicts.
Participants of the conference have noted that many coastal-maritime
biosphere reserves (designated at seashores, in small islands and archipelagos)
are located in peripheral parts of their countries and often lack governmental
attention. The relative isolation of such areas has created specific
natural-cultural environments that combine lifestyles of local communities
with neighbouring landscapes and water areas. These environments could
be irrevocably lost due to globalisation processes. Biosphere reserves
could help people to preserve their originality and provide perspective
for the future. At the same time, youth needs a policy preventing their
continuous migration from coastal-maritime biosphere reserves and providing
incentives for resettlement in these distant areas.
Complex research studies are needed to resolve these issues because
most studies currently run in coastal-maritime biosphere reserves have,
unfortunately, academic nature - while applied studies targeting specific
local resource management issues constitute a minority.
Participants of the conference have recognised reasonable to undertake
a representativeness assessment for biosphere reserves and their areas
in the coastal-maritime EuroMAB zone in order to promote designation
of new reserves. They supported proposals to apply GIS for zonation
and management optimisation in existing coastal-maritime biosphere reserves
and to create a specialised web site. Representatives of Baltic reserves
agreed to implement jointly the "Aspo Initiative" - a project
to resolve common local development issues.
The resolution of the conference included the following recommendations
for Russia related to the development of its coastal-maritime biosphere
reserves network:
- broadly distribute information on biosphere reserves in Northern
Eurasia and neighbouring regions;
- promote experience exchange between reserves;
- provide specific training courses for Russian biosphere reserves
staff;
- update the Russian legislation in order to suite it to the International
Biosphere Reserve Concept.
Full materials of the conference are available at: http://www.jayserve.fi/mab/.
Alexey Zimenko,
Biodiversity Conservation Center
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