10th Southeast Asia Biosphere Reserves Network (SeaBRnet) Meeting

The 10th Southeast Asia Biosphere Reserves Network (SeaBRnet) meeting will be organized by UNESCO Jakarta Office in Malaysia in 2017, with the theme on “Integrating UNESCO Programmes in Environment and Water”. The event will gather representatives from MAB Programme in Southeast Asia, including MAB National Committees and BR managers, with IHP and IGGP epresentatives. The aim is to discuss how to jointly promote BRs to serve as models for sustainable development, including how the MAB Programme could collaborate with other UNESCO programmes and networks such as the IHP and the UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGG).

The 4th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves, held in March 2016 in Lima, Peru, focused on “A New Vision for the Decade 2016-2025. UNESCO Biosphere Reserves for Sustainable Development” and aimed to assess lessons learned and new challenges to be faced by the WNBR, as well as develop and launch the Lima Action Plan (LAP) for BRs for 2016-2025. The Congress ended with the adoption of the Lima Declaration and the new ten-year Action Plan for UNESCO’s MAB Programme and its WNBR. Locally, MAB National Committees and MAB networks are strongly encouraged to prepare their own strategies using the MAB Strategy and LAP as the key points of reference.
In July 2016, the 3rd Asia Pacific Biosphere Reserves Network (APBRN) Strategic Meeting” took place in Bali, Indonesia, within the regional sciences event “Fostering Collaboration between UNESCO in the Field and Networks towards the Agenda 2030. The need for collaboration and establishment of strong synergies between UNESCO Natural Science programmes were highly underlined as a major recommendation from participants representing the MAB Programme, the IHP, the IGGP and the IBS Programme.
The next step in the implementation of the LAP in the region will be the 10th Southeast Asia Biosphere Reserves Network (SeaBRnet) meeting, which will be organized in 2017 in Malaysia with the theme on “Integrating UNESCO Programmes in Environment and Water“. The agenda of the event will include country reports from the members of the SeaBRnet, a special session to showcase the example of Malaysia sites, a session to discuss on potential collaborations among UNESCO Sciences programmes, group discussions on the implementation of LAP in Southeast Asia, and a field visit to Tasik Chini BR, in Kuantan.