Man and the Biosphere and Biosphere Researves

The Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program is one of UNESCO's most important scientific programs. It also seems to be one of the most misunderstood by certain factions within the United States. The worldwide network of bioresearves that has been created under the program provides a global network of living laboratories where mankind is learning to preserve and protect our biological resources, while using them in a sustainable fashion.

There is an old saying:

The history of civilization is written in shifting sands.

Many civilizations have risen and then fallen, and sometimes we can barely find their remains because they are covered in desert sands. Increasingly, evidence is gathering that the fall of civilizations often came when their demands on their environment exceeded what those environments could sustainably provide. Sometimes, the failure was due to a series of bad years, as do occur everywhere, which the society could no longer survive. Sometimes a new society with a better way to sustainably exploit the environmental resources was able to reclaim the land once lost, and sometimes not.

All responsible scientists agree that prudence demands that mankind learn how to better manage our environment to assure our civilization now and in the future is sustainable. Globalization, and the increasing ability of mankind to change our environment have resulted in a situation in which the concern for the environment is global, and not simply that of the local environment of a regionally constrained society.

The MAB program involves networks a global community of scientists studying sustainable development in a wide variety of ecosystems. There is a distinguished team of scientists forming the U.S. Man and the Biosphere Committee, including people serving on key government agencies. Indeed, the Department of State continued to fund U.S. researchers on Man and the Biosphere during the years in which we were not members of UNESCO.

The Golden Gate Biosphere Reserve is a partnership of
13 protected areas in the greater San Francisco Bay area.

Of special interest is the network of 243 Biosphere Reserves in 33 countries, which are sites that are selected by a peer review process for long term research and analysis. Here is a list of the 47 bioreserves nominated by the U.S. government and approved for inclusion in the network. Most, you will note, are either national parks, national forests, or other protected, government-owned sites.

Bioreserve	Date of Approval
Aleutian Islands	1976
Big Bend	1976
Cascade Head	1976
Central Plains	1976
Channel Islands	1976
Coram	1976
Denali	1976
Desert	1976
Everglades & Dry Tortugas	1976
Fraser	1976
Glacier	1976
H.J. Andrews	1976
Hubbard Brook	1976
Jornada	1976
Luquillo	1976
Noatak	1976
Olympic	1976
Organ Pipe Cactus	1976
Rocky Mountain	1976
San Dimas	1976
San Joaquin	1976
Sequoia-Kings Canyon	1976
Stanislaus-Tuolumne	1976
Three Sisters	1976
Virgin Islands	1976
Yellowstone	1976
Beaver Creek	1976
Konza Prairie	1978
Niwot Ridge	1979
University of Michigan Biological Station	1979
Virginia Coast	1979
Hawaiian Islands	1980
Isle Royale	1980
Big Thicket	1981
Guanica	1981
California Coast Ranges	1983
Central Gulf Coast Plain	1983
South Atlantic Coastal Plain	1983
Mojave and Colorado Deserts	1984
Carolinian-South Atlantic	1986
Glacier Bay-Admiralty Is.	1986
Golden Gate	1988
New Jersey Pinelands	1988
Southern Appalachian	1988
Champlain-Adirondak	1989
Mammoth Cave Area	1990
Land Between The Lakes Area	1991