UNESCO - MAB Biosphere Reserves Directory

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			Biosphere Reserve Information
			Spain BABIA


	Brief description		The core areas include the areas of greater environmental value fundamentally for their physiographic, geomorphological, floristic, faunal and landscape characteristics. The units were identified using the following criteria: Presence of endemic species, critical species and communities, naturalness (degree of conservation in relation to the influence of human activities), fragility (capacity to resist against external aggressions and capacity to recover), singularity, and complexity. As a result of this analysis the following units were selected for conservation: Beech forests, oak groves of English oak (Quercus robur), Pyrenean oak groves, birch forests, pasture lands and rocky formations, pasturelands and grassland-matorral formations on limestone, rocky places and canchales. Habitats of interest for the fauna, habitats of priority interest according to the Habitats Directive, and formations of geological interest were also taken into account, as well as the different uses of the territory. The combination of the different layers of information resulted in a series of zones. The core areas have the sufficient surface to conserve biodiversity, because they include almost all of the habitats of special interest. The buffer zones surround the core areas, serving as protection against the more intensive practices in the transition areas. The transition areas include human settlements and the more intensive practices including grasslands, mining extraction and communication axes. Projects related to low-cost residual water treatment systems; Investigations of fauna and flora to apply a suitable management of natural resources; Inventories and detailed cartography on flora, vegetation cover and habitats; Study of high-mountain pasture lands for cattle raising and the roads accessing these areas.
	*Specific variables...*
	Abiotic		Abiotic factors, habitat.
	Biodiversity		Fauna, flora, mountain and highland systems, natural resources, vegetation studies/plant cover.
	Socio-economic		Livestock and related impacts/Overgrazing, pastoralism/pastoralists/grazing.
	Integrated monitoring		Management issues, mapping.

Last updated: 08/01/2008