About the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme

The Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme is UNESCO’s leading initiative in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development by enhancing the relationship between people and their environments.

Last update:5 July 2024

It combines the natural and social sciences with a view to improving human livelihoods and safeguarding natural and managed ecosystems, thus promoting innovative approaches to economic development that are socially and culturally appropriate and environmentally sustainable.

By focusing on sites internationally recognized within the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, the MAB Programme strives to:

Identify and assess the changes in the biosphere

resulting from human and natural activities and the effects of these changes on humans and the environment, in particular in the context of climate change

Study the interrelationships between ecosystems and socio-economic processes

amid loss of biological & cultural diversity that hinders ecosystems provision of services for human wellbeing

Ensure basic human welfare and a liveable environment

in the context of rapid urbanization and energy consumption as drivers of environmental change

Promote the exchange and transfer of knowledge

on environmental problems and solutions, and to foster environmental education for sustainable development

The Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme has laid the scientific foundations for a new harmony between humans and their environment – one that reconciles conservation and development, and teaches us how to live with the living world, in the living world, rather than at its expense.

Audrey AzoulayUNESCO Director-General

UNESCO Biosphere Reserves designated in 2023

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Exporing the riverine ecosystem in Drömling Biosphere Reserve, Germany

Tree nursery in the Korup Rainforest Biosphere Reserve, Cameroon

Landscape of the Manovo-Gounda St Floris National Park, a World Heritage property within the Protected Area Complex of Northeast Central African Republic Biosphere Reserve