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A Working Group on Urban Biosphere Reserves has been set up within the Task Force on Cities and Protected Areas of IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) to facilitate communication between the IUCN protected areas community and those involved in an initiative on urban biosphere reserves.

Intended to sustain biodiversity and facilitate sustainable usage, the concept of the biosphere reserve draws protected areas into a broader context and recognizes that people are an essential part of the fabric of nature. As such, the designation of these areas is also intended to conserve their socioeconomic and cultural values. A valuable characteristic of the biosphere reserve concept is its adaptability, with no rigid blueprints for their establishment, allowing the idea to be interpreted and implemented to suit local conditions. This has led workers from across the world to examine the benefits which could come to towns and cities from adopting the biosphere approach across the entire urban area.

The urban biosphere initiative is being coordinated by the MAB Urban Group of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme: www.unesco.org/mab/ecosyst/urban.shtml.

The IUCN working group is chaired by Peter Frost of the Countryside Council for Wales, United Kingdom. E-mail: p[dot]frost[at]ccw[dot]gov[dot]uk.

Go to the home page of this section for further background, contacts, and links to various documents and groups related to the complex interconnections among urban people, cities as places, urban local governments, nature, and natural resources.