China to host the 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves of UNESCO
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E-mail China.org.cn/Chinagate.cn, October 11, 2022
In May 2022, China formally submitted the bid of hosting the 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves (WCBR) to UNESCO. Recently, the Assistant Director General of UNESCO sent a letter to China National Commission for UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, confirming that the 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves will be held in China in 2025. After the conference, UNESCO will also hold the 37th session of the MAB International Co-ordinating Council in China.
The MAB Programme is an intergovernmental scientific program officially launched by UNESCO in 1971, focusing on promoting the harmonious integration between people and the nature by combining the natural and social sciences with economics, education and capacity-building.
The World Biosphere Reserve Network (WBRN) built on the basis of this programme is the largest and oldest collection of nature reserves in the UNESCO system. At present, it has 738 world biosphere reserves in 134 countries and regions, covering a total area of around 5% of the earth's land surface. The WCBR is the largest international conference in the MAB Programme system. It is held every 10 years or so to summarize the development of the MAB Programme and the WBRN in the last phase, and formulate the development strategy and action plan for the next stage in combination with the external situation. So far, it has been held in Minsk, Seville, Madrid and Lima for four times.
The 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves will be held in China in 2025. This will be the first time that the WCBR is held in China, and also in the Asia-Pacific region. It will help disseminate ecological civilization ideas, systematically demonstrate China's achievements in ecological civilization construction in recent years, and at the same time deeply participate in the formulation of global development strategies and action plans for the next phase of MAB, promote the implementation of global development initiatives, and contribute Chinese wisdom to global ecological and environmental governance and the building of a shared future for all life on earth.
China formally joined the UNESCO MAB Programme in 1973, and the China National Committee for UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB China) was established in 1978 with the approval of the State Council, with the support of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in collaboration with other ministries engaged in the administration of environmental conservation, forestry, agriculture, education, ocean and atmosphere, and so on. The secretariat of MAB China is located in CAS.
This article is contributed by Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
