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The contributions of UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme and biosphere reserves to the practice of sustainability science

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Abstract

Sustainability science as a transdisciplinary academic field has taken off since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Recent reflections have traced its practical origins back to the 1980s when sustainable development became popularized. Using academic and governmental literature as primary sources, I argue that these reflections are incomplete and that the practices of sustainability science as espoused today are embedded in the establishment of a normative and pragmatic form of ecosystem sciences that emerged in Europe and North America in the early twentieth century—informed by scientific principles of holism, conservation, and faith in scientific expertise and by social sensibilities of love of nature, morality, and pragmatism. Following World War II, years of scientific and intergovernmental debate led to the creation of an international program of applied research and education in the 1970s—the Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The most enduring legacy of the MAB Programme is the world network of Biosphere Reserves, first initiated in 1976 and now numbering 669 in 120 countries. While this program is not the only contributor to sustainability science, this network became an embodiment of sustainability science, by implementing a use-inspired, transdisciplinary research and action program at the human–environment interface. A major challenge has been to generate consistent uptake and cross fertilization by scientists internationally. Reviewing the ideas and ideals that helped found the MAB Programme uncovers enduring institutional, methodological and epistemological challenges facing sustainability scientists and suggests opportunities to transform the research and practice of sustainability science so that they better align with contemporary aspirations and values.

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Fig. 1

(adapted after UNESCO 1974). Credit: Colleen George and Yvonne Drebert

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Notes

  1. Geography is a discipline that has roots in understanding human-environment relations. These include Alexander’s Humboldt’s explanation of landschaft in the 19th Century (see Kwa 2005), Harlan Barrow’s (1923) interpretation of geography as human ecology, Carl Sauer’s (1925) concepts of landscape morphology, and Gilbert White’s interpretation of human adjustments to hazards (White 1945). Ironically, despite notable individuals working in the mid-twentieth Century on human-environment relations (e.g., Gilbert White, Robert Kates, Ian Burton), these traditions were in remission in the discipline in the 1950s and 1960s (see Burton 1963). Geography became caught up in defining itself as a spatial and quantitative science, such that ecology, both as a discipline and as a popular movement, saw its star rise on the international stage. Some geographers became influential in the development of other international programs such as Gilbert White who helped found the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) and the International Group on Greenhouse Gasses (a predecessor of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (Kates 2011b).

  2. The locations and changing numbers of biosphere reserves can be traced by site and year on UNESCO’s website at http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/ [accessed on June 19 2018]

    A map, current to 2017, is available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0025/002596/259695m.pdf [accessed on June 19 2018]

  3. According to Bettencourt and Kaur (2011) the social sciences contributions outnumber those of biological sciences. However, this tally includes multiple social science disciplines. Hence, rolling up all social sciences into a single category is equivalent to considering biology as representing all of the natural sciences.

  4. Odum (1977) also argued that understanding how energy circulates through ecosystems would provide an integrative or holistic understanding of biotic and physical components.

  5. The Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study of long-term impacts of forest practices began in 1963.

  6. According to Barry Commoner (1971), the four laws of ecology are: everything is connected to everything else; everything must go somewhere; nature knows best; and there is no such thing as a free lunch.

  7. Initially, 13 research project areas were created, with a 14th added later in 1974. Some project areas focused on the interrelationships between ‘man’ and ecosystem, some focused on major physiographical units such as tropical forests, arid zones, mountain regions or urban areas, others focused on particular impacts or processes deemed to be of global significance such as human perceptions and attitudes to the environment, and the use of pesticides. Although most clearly explained under Project 8, “Conservation of natural resources and of the genetic material they contain”, BRs were mentioned throughout formative documents as sites for scientific research that would support many projects across the MAB Programme.

  8. I am grateful to one anonymous reviewer for pointing out this challenge.

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Acknowledgements

Data for this research included documentary materials archived at UNESCO (Paris, France), available online, and the Wilfrid Laurier Archives (Waterloo, Canada). Records of Canada’s national program include the Francis Fonds (a collection of records now 50.6 meters long), Roots Fonds, Birtch Fonds, and Canadian BRs Association Fonds. My gratitude goes out to two pioneers of Biosphere Reserves in Canada and internationally—George Francis and the late Fred Roots. Staff at the Archives at Wilfrid Laurier University, particularly Joan Mitchell and Cindy Preece, provided ongoing assistance in this project. I am also grateful to the members of the Canadian Biosphere Reserves Association and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. Over the years, I have been well supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. I appreciate the insights on drafts of this paper from Tim Jardine, Martin Price, Louis Reed-Wood, Toddi Steelman, and Andrew Watson and acknowledge direct assistance from Felicitas Egunyu with the references and from Colleen George and Yvonne Drebert in creating Fig. 1. Finally, I am grateful for the thoughtful comments by two anonymous reviewers and for the support of the journal’s editor and editorial assistant.

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  1. School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan, 117 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5C8, Canada

    Maureen G. Reed

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Reed, M.G. The contributions of UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme and biosphere reserves to the practice of sustainability science. Sustain Sci 14, 809–821 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0603-0

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