Earlier this month Andy Rowland (Ecodyfi) and Chris Higgins (University of Edinburgh) attended the EuroMAB 2013 conference in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, on behalf of the COBWEB project. Andy and Chris are pictured above during the tour of the local Biosphere Reserve, Frontenac Arch. Those who, like COBWEB, work and engage with the UNESCO Man And Biosphere programme, will be interested to read Chris’ reflections on the event:
Over the 4 days (15th-19th October), we attended several workshops, heard a lot of interesting discussion and made quite a few new friends. We took the opportunity to strengthen contact between COBWEB and the Greek and German Biosphere Reserves we are working with, by discussing the project with Prof. Michael Scoullos, the Chair of the Greek MAB Committee, and with the Head of Nature Conservation at the Wadden Sea and Hallig Islands Biosphere Reserve.
This was our first exposure to EuroMAB in its entirety. It is very lively, enthusiastic and diverse group representing many different countries across Europe (which, for historical reasons, includes North America) and many varied Biosphere Reserves.
My overall impression is that the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) is a significantly underused resource. Following imperatives issuing from fora such as the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, never was the need greater for a network of areas that could act as exemplars for what an ecologically sustainable society might look like.
We can report an appetite for greater understanding of how technological advancements may progress the sustainable development agenda. In COBWEB’s area of competence, there is significant interest in what we are doing in respect of citizen science and ecosystem services. We hope to be able to report some more concerted activity in this area in association with the next EuroMAB conference in 2015 in Estonia.
As a general point, the opportunity to access existing networks of citizens in different countries through the WNBR is of great benefit to COBWEB. It was noted in a workshop we attended, that this is a pattern that could be repeated in other projects which require a comparative European dimension and access to citizens in a sustainable development context.
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