{"id":173531,"date":"2025-09-27T19:59:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T19:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/173531\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T19:59:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T19:59:06","slug":"unesco-designates-26-new-biosphere-reserves-amid-biodiversity-challenges-and-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/173531\/","title":{"rendered":"UNESCO designates 26 new biosphere reserves amid biodiversity challenges and climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Indonesian archipelago that’s home to three-fourths of Earth’s coral species, a stretch of Icelandic coast with 70% of the country’s plant life and an area along Angola’s Atlantic coast featuring savannahs, forests and estuaries are among 26 new UNESCO-designated<\/a> biosphere reserves.<\/p>\n

The United Nations cultural agency says the reserves \u2014 785 sites in 142 countries, designated since 1971 \u2014 are home to some of the planet\u2019s richest and most fragile ecosystems. But biosphere reserves encompass more than strictly protected nature reserves; they’re expanded to include areas where people live and work, and the designation requires that scientists, residents and government officials work together to balance conservation and research with local economic and cultural needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept of biosphere reserves is that biodiversity conservation is a pillar of socioeconomic development\u201d and can contribute to the economy, said Ant\u00f3nio Abreu, head of the program, adding that conflict and misunderstanding can result if local communities are left out of decision-making and planning. <\/p>\n

The new reserves, in 21 countries, were announced Saturday in Hangzhou, China, where the program adopted a 10-year strategic action plan that includes studying the effects of climate change, Abreu said. <\/p>\n

The new reserves include a 52,000-square-mile (135,000-square-kilometer) area in the Indonesian archipelago, Raja Ampat, home to over 75% of earth\u2019s coral species as well as rainforests and rare endangered sea turtles. The economy depends on fishing, aquaculture, small-scale agriculture and tourism, UNESCO said.<\/p>\n

On Iceland’s<\/a> west coast, the Sn\u00e6fellsnes Biosphere Reserve’s landscape includes volcanic peaks, lava fields, wetlands, grasslands and the Sn\u00e6fellsj\u00f6kull glacier. The 1,460-square-kilometer (564 square-mile) reserve is an important sanctuary for seabirds, seals and over 70% of Iceland’s plant life \u2014 including 330 species of wildflowers and ferns. Its population of more than 4,000 people relies on fishing, sheep farming and tourism.<\/p>\n

And in Angola<\/a>, the new Qui\u00e7ama Biosphere Reserve, along 206 kilometers (128 miles) of Atlantic coast is a \u201csanctuary for biodiversity\u201d within its savannahs, forests, flood plains, estuaries and islands, according to UNESCO. It’s home to elephants, manatees, sea turtles and more than 200 bird species. Residents’ livelihoods include livestock herding, farming, fishing, honey production.<\/p>\n

Residents are important partners in protecting biodiversity within the reserves, and even have helped identify new species, said Abreu, the program’s leader. Meanwhile, scientists also are helping to restore ecosystems to benefit the local economy, he said.<\/p>\n

For example, in the Philippines<\/a>, the coral reefs around Pangatalan Island were severely damaged because local fishermen used dynamite to find depleted fish populations. Scientists helped design a structure to help coral reefs regrow and taught fishermen to raise fish through aquaculture so the reefs could recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have food and they have also fish to sell in the markets,\u201d said Abreu.<\/p>\n

In the African nation of S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe, a biosphere reserve on Pr\u00edncipe Island led to restoration of mangroves, which help buffer against storm surges and provide important habitat, Abreu said.<\/p>\n

Ecotourism also has become an important industry, with biosphere trails and guided bird-watching tours. A new species of owl was identified there in recent years. <\/p>\n

This year, a biosphere reserve was added for the island of S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9, making the country the first entirely within a reserve.<\/p>\n

At least 60% of the UNESCO biosphere reserves have been affected by extreme weather tied to climate change, which is caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and gas, including extreme heat and drought and sea-level rise, Abreu said.<\/p>\n

The agency is using satellite imagery and computer modeling to monitor changes in coastal zones and other areas, and is digitizing its historical databases, Abreu said. The information will be used to help determine how best to preserve and manage the reserves.<\/p>\n

Some biosphere reserves also are under pressure from environmental degradation.<\/p>\n

In Nigeria, for example, habitat for a dwindling population of critically endangered African forest elephants is under threat<\/a> as cocoa farmers expand into Omo Forest Reserve<\/a>, a protected rainforest and one of Africa\u2019s oldest and largest UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. The forest is also important to help combat climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration in July announced that the U.S. would withdraw<\/a> from UNESCO as of December 2026, just as it did during his first administration, saying U.S. involvement is not in the national interest. The U.S. has 47 biosphere reserves<\/a>, most in federal protected areas.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Indonesian archipelago that’s home to three-fourths of Earth’s coral species, a stretch of Icelandic coast with 70%…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[112870,6634,1313,4225,64,63,11808,65239,17881,68,59057,20558,75,112869,5426,482,14160,128,1346,9864],"class_list":{"0":"post-173531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-112870","9":"tag-agriculture","10":"tag-animals","11":"tag-article","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-biodiversity","15":"tag-botany","16":"tag-climate-and-environment","17":"tag-climate-change","18":"tag-coastlines-and-beaches","19":"tag-endangered-species","20":"tag-environment","21":"tag-environmental-conservation","22":"tag-forests","23":"tag-general-news","24":"tag-plants","25":"tag-science","26":"tag-world-news","27":"tag-zoology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}