Islands of Good Sense: Communicating UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme
Date
2016
Authors
Thulstrup, Hans Dencker
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Abstract
This thesis examines how the core messages of
UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme and their
transmission and interpretation among the programme’s different
participants and stakeholders have evolved from the programme’s
inception in the late 1960s to the present day, and provides
recommendations on how to strengthen MAB’s current
communication practices. Initially established as an
interdisciplinary programme comprising 14 distinct research
projects investigating the relationship between humankind and the
biosphere with the objective of generating the knowledge and
wisdom to improve it, the approaches and methodologies advocated
by MAB have changed considerably over the past decades. MAB is
today best known for its global network of 669 biosphere reserves
at which the methodologies and concepts advocated by the
programme are trialed in practice. Through a historical analysis
and three case studies examining the implementation of the MAB
programme in Vietnam, Palau and Australia, respectively, the
trajectory of MAB’s messages and their interpretation are
examined in detail. The research undertaken traces a number of
significant shifts in the way new knowledge and practice is
generated within MAB, from its origin as a research agenda
produced by a gathering of elite scientists to a decentralized
network of experimental sites at which new approaches towards
sustainable development are put into practice in accordance with
local priorities. The three case studies demonstrate how MAB’s
basic concepts and ideas are increasingly interpreted based on
local conditions and priorities, sometimes approaching
self-organization occurring in relative isolation from either the
national or global levels of the programme. The research also
shows that MAB’s wide-reaching research-derived objectives have
made the articulation of a clear and coherent definition of the
programme’s core purpose difficult, posing a challenge to the
programme’s national coordinators and biosphere reserve
managers charged with the responsibility of implementing MAB
in-situ. In conclusion, a series of recommendations addressed to
MAB’s governing bodies are made on the basis of the analysis
performed, advocating the establishment of a global frame of
reference within which to communicate MAB’s original open-ended
and inquiry-based objectives, thereby allowing biosphere reserves
to develop locally appropriate and specific interpretations of
the programme’s objectives; the articulation of a more precise
definition of the biosphere reserve’s purpose; the elaboration
of more targeted communications with the individual biosphere
reserves; and the development of accessible guidance on the
implementation of the programme in practice.
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UNESCO, Man and the Biosphere, biosphere reserves, science communication, ecology, natural resources management, protected areas, multilateral environmental agreements
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Thesis (PhD)
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