UNESCO's Man And Biosphere World Changing Program, That Needs More Awareness
The UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program is a remarkable initiative carried out by resourceful, dedicated communities around the world who develop multi-pronged, sustainable ecosystems with economic, quality of life, and environmental benefits. Each biosphere reserve functions as a 'living laboratory' for sustainable development with hundreds of local initiatives ranging from biodiversity conservation, to regenerative agriculture, and green tourism. Though MAB has been in existence since 1971, and today there are 759 UNESCO biosphere reserves across 136 countries, including 28 in the U.S., and more than 250 million people live in biosphere reserves globally, the program has limited awareness in much of the world. Increased resources to communicate what the program is all about and the value it provides, could have a tremendous impact on further growth.
In late March I attended the U.K.'s UNESCO Man and Biosphere summit in Brighton and Hove in Sussex England (south of London) that brought together the country's 7 biospheres, including The Living Coast (Brighton and Hove), Wester Ross, Galloway and Southern Ayrshire, the Dyfi Valley, the Isle of White, Isle of Man, and North Devon. Representatives from each UK biosphere met to share their progress and learnings, and better understand the successes in Brighton and Hove including:
Mauro Colagreco, the remarkable chef who has done as much as any chef in the world to promote biodiversity and sustainability, is using his perch as a world renown chef to help UNESCO increase awareness for MAB. In 2022 Mauro was designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity, the first chef named to this role. Mauro's restaurant, Mirazur, in Menton, France was chosen '#1 In The World' in 2019. Aside from serving only biodynamic food supplied from the restaurant's 5 biodynamic gardens and carefully chosen local suppliers, Mirazur's kitchen is the first and only Michelin 3-star restaurant that's both 100% plastic free, and also a B-Corp. He shares his pioneering work on biodynamics and the total elimination of plastic in kitchens with other chefs, as Vice President of Chefs for the global Relais & Chateaux Association, and also at his other 26 restaurants on 4 continents.
At the extraordinary Goldstone Primary School in Hove, its principal and educators work throughout the district to integrate sustainability into all aspects of the curriculum. The school was blessed with a large plot of land, and that day, one of the first warm, sunny days of Spring, all the kids were outside learning from nature. A 4th grade class was studying British history during World War II by planting and harvesting a victory garden. Mauro visited the elementary school and spoke with 4th graders who asked extremely thoughtful questions about the importance and impact of sustainability on his restaurants, on local communities, and on the planet.
During the week before the UNESCO UK MAB summit, the Mauro Colagreco Michelin-Star Restaurant at London's historic, 5-star Raffles at The OWO Hotel, offered an extraordinary meal that honored the 7 UK biospheres. Dishes inspired by each region featured produce, fish, meat, poultry, and dairy products from those biospheres, beautifully presented, like ceviche with seafood from North Devon served inside a hollowed-out kohlrabi, and a beautiful, honey-based dessert with ingredients from the Isle of Man. The OWO Hotel, opened in 2023, is an extraordinary restoration of the Old War Office (OWO) for the U.K.'s Department of Defense, where Winston Churchihill ran England's WWII operations.
I had not previously known of the important work of the UNESCO MAB initiatives around the world, and when I described my extraordinary experience to people on both sides of the Atlantic, I didn't find anyone else who was familiar the Biosphere Reserves. I researched UNESCO MAB and learned that the U.S. had 28 biospheres, but the last one that joined the program was 35 years ago, in 1990. Having worked at Disney in the licensing division and managed Disney toy line licenses for Mattel globally, I noticed some parallels with UNESCO. In the corporate world, licensors create the name, standards, overall awareness, and brand image that all products and programs under its umbrella must live up to. Licensees market their own executions of the brand, and play a major role in creating awareness for their specific initiatives.
While UNESCO is not a commercial brand, its Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program provides a unifying identity, framework, and international recognition for the over 700 biosphere reserves worldwide. It facilitates cooperation, and each reserve brings the concept to life in ways that reflect its unique ecological, social, and economic context. Given the program's tremendous economic and quality of life benefits to communities and the environment globally, and given the importance of the UN 17 Sustainability Goals that have been adopted by governments and organizations around the world, greater awareness of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere program would be additive and a virtuous cycle. It would help each biosphere with 'place marketing' (promoting locations to attract tourism, investment and business growth), showcasing each as a great place:
- For people to live
- For businesses to locate and find talent
- For university students to study
- For tourists and eco-tourists to visit
- For products to proudly display they are from
Individual UNESCO Biospheres often operate on tight limited budgets, with local partners' and regional funding. The small core teams who operate them are usually experts in biodiversity and community engagement, but not marketing. Given the seemingly low global awareness of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere programs, it's important that more dollars be spent at the global level to increase awareness, knowledge of, and the value of the program to encourage other communities to join. UNESCO, is currently setting up national and international partnerships with businesses and organizations interested in supporting these local sustainability labs that bring so many health and wellbeing and economic benefits to their residents. The positive flywheel of support and guidance will help grow the movement:
- Increasing the likelihood new communities will want to qualify
- Increasing the value to participant communities, as more people will want to visit, students will want to study, and businesses will want to locate there because of the MAB designation
- Businesses can claim their products are from their biosphere, benefiting from associations with health and sustainability. On-package biosphere designations can also help grow biosphere awareness around the world, wherever the products are sold, even hundreds of miles away. I found this wonderful Cheddar with the Isle of Man MAB designation in New York City food shop.
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