Reconciling biodiversity preservation and local sustainable development : the role of the "MAB biosphere reserves" in the South-Eastern European countries

The contents of this dissertation represent the synthesis of a three-years academic research activity - from November 2000 to October 2003 - carried out in the frame of the XVI cycle of the doctoral programme 'Man and Environment' ('Uomo e ambiente'), activated at the Department of Geography (Dipartimento di Geografia) of the University of Padova (Università degli Studi di Padova). The research was conducted partly in Italy and partly in Germany, at the University of Freiburg (Universität Freiburg), within the frame of a co-tutoring agreement with the Institute of Forest and Environmental Policy (Institut für Forst- und Umweltpolitik) of the Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences (Fakultät für Forst- und Umweltwissenschaften). <br> <br>The research firstly generates from the candidate's confrontation with the recent revision process, occurring in the frame of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme, which lead to the publication (2002) of the book entitled 'Biosphere Reserves: special places for Nature and People'. The volume intended to comprehensively summarise the main steps of the Programme's history, as well as the conceptual evolution of its main implementation tools: the Biosphere Reserves (BRs). <br> <br>The first part of this dissertation (chapter I) reports the main trends in the MAB Programme history, by analysing its interrelations with the major international activities since its foundation. In particular, the issues of the biodiversity preservation and the local sustainable development promotion are considered, and the possible role that the BRs can play to foster them. <br> <br>The second part (chapter II) provides an overall picture of the main theoretical backgrounds which have been considered along with the research development: in particular, the key concepts of the ecosystem evolution and how they influenced the management practices are considered first; secondly, the contribution of the political ecology is analysed, as a relevant actor-based approach in dealing with the natural resources policy research; thirdly, the bioregional studies and the implication of the Bioregionalism in the natural resources management are considered; the conceptual evolution of the regional studies in geography and their links with the evolving issue of the development (namely, development, human development and sustainable development) are fourthly included; ultimately, the comprehensive analytical model of the local territorial systems is presented, in order to interpret the elements fostering the local sustainable development. <br> <br>None of the previously mentioned approaches was considered fully satisfactory to deal with the original working hypothesis: can the BR model foster the reconciling of biodiversity preservation and local sustainable development in the context of the South-Eastern-European countries (SEEcs)? The Grounded Theory supported the continuous activities of reformulating working hypothesis in the attempt of generating a new conceptual frame. <br>In fact, the various sources of data used for this research range from the UNESCO historical archives to the outputs of the recent international meetings dedicated to the SEEcs in the frame of the MAB Programme; additional information were collected from the SEEcs MAB case-studies - specifically prepared for the EuroMAB 2002 bi-annual meeting - and from the in field visits to the selected areas in Serbia; namely, the recently nominated (2001) 'Goljia-Studenica' BR and the National Park 'Tara', one of the next sites to be designated in the MAB Programme. The results of the three-scale analysis (regional, national and local) are reported in the chapter IV, where the horizontal and vertical relationship between the various levels are emphasised. <br> <br>The fifth chapter reports the concluding remarks generated by the research; the findings tend to demonstrate that the original flexible concept of the BR is an appropriate conceptual and planning instrument, to foster the reconciling of the biodiversity preservation and the local sustainable development. In particular - at the condition that all the three pertinent scales actors are properly relating each other - the BR model may generate additional 'territorial value', by platforming innovative and flexible management practices able to support the negotiation of 'territorial pacts', better adaptable to the rapidly changing socio-economic scenarios of the SEEcs.

Author dc:creator

• Andrian, Giorgio

Contributors dc:contributor

• Faggi, Pierpaolo

• biosphere
• reserve
• biodiversity
• development
• Unesco

Repository record source_url

https://freidok.uni-freiburg.de/data/1813

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:freidok.uni-freiburg.de:1813