The newly established Unesco Biosphere Reserve in Aruba encompasses the island nation’s entire land area as well as its surrounding ocean waters. (Photo by Jürgen Freund/WWF)
For decades, experts have debated whether Unesco Biosphere Reserve status serves as a force for conservation-compatible development or, because it lacks an enforcement mechanism, as a marketing tool that too often encourages the opposite. Differing views on the question have surfaced in discussion of Unesco’s recent designation of the entire Caribbean island of Aruba and its ocean waters as a biosphere reserve. The designation enables Aruba to join the African island of São Tomé and Príncipe as the only sites of country-wide biospheres in Unesco’s global, 145-nation network of 797 biosphere reserves. The reserve was established June 5 at a meeting in Hernandarias, Paraguay, of the International Coordinating Council of Unesco’s Man and the Biosphere Program. It encompasses all 19,300 hectares (47,700 acres) of Aruba’s land and nearly 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of surrounding ocean waters. Eric Falt, Unesco’s regional director and representative for the... [Log in to read more]
