Mountain Biosphere Reserves as Model Territories: Reconciling the Goals of Biological/Cultural Heritage Conservation and Development

Abstract

This chapter introduces the successful model of Biosphere Reserves (BR) to support multifunctional objectives towards conservation with development in the mountainous regions of the world. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) developed an innovative approach to making sure people’s needs were met within natural protected areas supporting increasing development pressure. The model prioritised the central place model of geographers to deal with centrality (core zone), allay or shock-absorber (buffer zone) and marginality (peripheral or transition zone) for spatial analysis and management. In many cases, particularly in the most populated mountain regions, many national parks and other protected areas have been incorporated into the BR model, making it one of the most popular forms of nature-culture protection, with 50 years in the making worldwide. By using examples from the northern Chinese’s Changbai mountains, the Canadian Rockies, the Andes mountains, and the transboundary reserve in the Altai mountains, where the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China converge, the details of planning and administration of TBRs (transboundary biosphere reserves) and MBRs (mountain biosphere reserves) are made explicit.