Member:
Junta de Andalucía

Project approved: Shared Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve in the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve Andalucia-Morocco has been definitively approved by UNESCO. During the meeting of the MaB Programme held on 24 and 25 October in Paris, the report prepared by the Co-ordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere (Mab) Programme of UNESCO for the first Biosphere reserve between two continents was considered positively.

In addition to this report, supporting interventions by different members and responsibles for the Reserve such as the Spanish Minister of Environment, Cristina Narbona; representatives of the Consejería de Medio Ambiente; the Spanish general secretary for Biodiversity, Antonio Serrano; the president of the MaB Committee in Morocco, Driss Fassi; and the president of the MaB Scientific Department, Miguel Clusener helped support this initiative. UNESCO has highlighted the strength of this project, and the rationale behind it.

One of the reasons to approve the initiative according to UNESCO has been its pioneering nature, being a conservation programme affecting two countries in two continents with very different socioeconomic situations and sharing a common natural and cultural heritage. Even more, this is the first marine corridor established as a reserve and also it has created a system of reserves: Sierra de las Nieves and Sierra de Grazalema in Andalucia had already been declared as such.

The reserve, the first one between two continents and with an elaborated Action Plan, has more than one million hectares and has been developed under the framework of an Interreg III Community Initiative Programme, whose objective is the promotion of the conservation and sustainable use of resources by local communities.

The transboundary territories include the natural parks of Sierra de Grazalema, Sierra de las Nieves, Del Estrecho and Los Alcornocales; the natural sites of Los Reales de Sierra Bermeja, Sierra Crestellina, Desfiladero de los Gaitanes and Playa de Los Lances; and the natural monuments of Duna de Bolonia, Pinsapo de las Escaleretas and Cañón de las Buitreras in Andalucía, and in Morocco, Talassemtane National Park and Sites of biological and ecological interest such as Jbel Bouhachem, Ben Karrich, Jbel Moussa, Koudiet Taifour, Côte Ghomara, Cirque de Jebha and Lagune de Smir.

Ms. Cristina Narbona Ruiz, Minister for Environment of the Kingdom of Spain, also announced on 24 October 2006, at the 19th session of the MAB-ICC that Spain offered to host the 3rd World Biosphere Reserves Congress entitled "Biosphere Futures, UNESCO Biosphere Reserves for Sustainable Development" in Madrid from 4 - 8 February 2008.

More info:

Consejería de Medio Ambiente
Junta de Andalucía
Avda. Manuel Siurot, 50
41013  Sevilla, Spain
Tel: + 34 955.00.34.00 / 955.00.35.00
Fax: + 34 955.00.37.75
Email: Sv.RENPA.at@cma.junta-andalucia.es