Context: Recently, UNESCO designated Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD) as the world’s first ‘five-country biosphere reserve.

Background

• The project has been in preparation for over ten years, with the environmental ministers of the five countries signing a joint declaration in March 2011, during Hungary’s European Union presidency, to set up the five-member biosphere reserve.

About Mura-Dráva-Danube Biosphere Reserve

• This title has been approved by the UNESCO Man and Biosphere intergovernmental council.
• The biosphere reserve links areas in Hungary, Austria, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia and it is one of the largest of its kind in Europe.
• The biosphere reserve covers 700 kilometres of the Mura, Drava and Danube rivers and stretches across Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia.
• The total area of the reserve — a million hectares — in the so-called ‘Amazon of Europe’, makes it the largest riverine protected area on the continent.
• The reserve is home to floodplain forests, gravel and sand banks, river islands, oxbows and meadows.
• It is home to continental Europe’s highest density of breeding white-tailed eagle (more than 150 pairs), as well as endangered species such as the little tern, black stork, otters, beavers and sturgeons.
• It is also an important annual resting and feeding place for more than 250,000 migratory birds, according to WWF.
• Almost 900,000 people live in the biosphere reserve.

Additional Information

• Presently, there are 18 Biosphere Reserves in India, among which 12 Biosphere reserves in India find their place in UNESCO’s List of Man & Biosphere Reserves Programme.
• The latest included under the MAB was ‘Panna Biosphere Reserve’ (Madhya Pradesh).

About UNESCO Biosphere Reserves

• Biosphere reserves are ‘learning places for sustainable development’.
• They are nominated by national governments and remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located.
• They are designated under the intergovernmental MAB Programme by the Director-General of UNESCO following the decisions of the MAB International Coordinating Council (MAB ICC).
• Their status is internationally recognized. Member States can submit sites through the designation process.
• Biosphere reserves include terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems.

They integrate three main “functions”:

1. Conservation of biodiversity and cultural diversity
2. Economic development that is socio-culturally and environmentally sustainable
3. Logistic support, underpinning development through research, monitoring, education and training

(a) Core Areas: It comprises a strictly protected zone that contributes to the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic variation.
(b) Buffer Zones: It surrounds or adjoins the core area(s), and is used for activities compatible with sound ecological practices that can reinforce scientific research, monitoring, training and education.
(c) Transition Area: The transition area is where communities foster socio-culturally and ecologically sustainable economic and human activities.