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Promoting sustainable development through UNESCO’s programmes and sites. New sites selected for the final cycle
Launched in March 2022, the collaborative project ‘Promoting sustainable development through UNESCO’s programmes and sites’, within UNESCO and the abrdn Charitable Foundation’s partnership, is now entering its third year. The project provides a significant opportunity for joint action to promote sustainable development and tackle the climate crisis on the ground, while making important contributions towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The call for applications for this final cycle was published in March 2024, after which all submitted project proposals were evaluated against the published criteria. The shortlisted sites were reviewed in May by the project’s Advisory Board, composed of representatives from UNESCO and the abrdn Charitable Foundation (aCF). The 5 winning proposals for the 3rd-year cycle are:
- "Study on forest ecosystems in mountain water catchments in Central Balkan Biosphere Reserve”, Central Balkan Biosphere Reserve (Bulgaria)
- “MABR Climate Change Realities: Local and regional climate change impacts in the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region”, Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve (Canada)
- "Research, protection and sustainable use of fresh groundwater of the Vis Archipelago UNESCO Global Geopark", Vis Archipelago UNESCO Global Geopark (Croatia)
- “Cave monitoring associated with a climate reconstruction from the Szent István-cave”, Bükk Region UNESCO Global Geopark (Hungary)
- “A Geosite of my own”, Estrela UNESCO Global Geopark (Portugal)
Throughout the 3rd-year cycle, UNESCO will work with these newly selected sites to align the expected results with the priority areas of its scientific programmes. These results can then be scaled up as best practices at the regional and global levels to implement the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 6 - Clean water and sanitation, SDG 13 - Climate action, SDG 14 - Life below Water and SDG 15 - Life on land. The project pursues results in 3 main interconnected areas:
- Research; focusing on biodiversity, nature-based solutions, ecosystem services, water, the ocean, and the climate;
- Education; including Education for Sustainable Development, water education, Ocean Literacy and climate change education, in collaboration with schools in the sites;
- Innovative ‘green’ and ‘blue’ solutions; involving key stakeholders such as local businesses, NGOs and youth.
Each selected site will be allocated $25,000 for the project to implement within a 12-month timeframe. The launch event for the 3rd cycle on 12 September 2024 in Venice, Italy will bring together the 5 new sites, as well as the existing 10 pilot sites from the previous cycles, providing an excellent opportunity for all 15 participating sites to engage in peer learning and share knowledge and best practices.
The impressive results achieved so far throughout this initiative exemplify the positive impact of collaborative efforts between UNESCO’s scientific programmes – the Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme, the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP), International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme (IGGP), and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) – and its extensive networks of UNESCO designated sites, including Biosphere Reserves, Global Geoparks and Natural World Heritage sites.
