Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Information

The Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Foundation was formed in 1996 to establish a United Nations Biosphere Reserve comprising the watersheds of Vancouver Island's Mount Arrowsmith and adjacent marine areas. After much work and consultation with local and senior government, First Nations, businesses and other interested parties, the Foundation achieved its goal. In November of 2000, the Man and Biosphere Program of the United Nations' Education, Science, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognized the Mount Arrowsmith Biopshere Reserve. Biosphere Reserves are a tool to help local communities understand their area's earth crust and waters, or biosphere, through the promotion of scientific research, monitoring and education. With the information that results, local communities are better equipped to participate in the sustainable management of their environment and reconcile tensions between protecting environmental attributes and pursuing economic development. Biosphere Reserves carry no legal status, nor do they impart any management authority or automatically bring resources to a local area. The success of a Biosphere Reserve depends on the productivity of the local Biosphere organization, and the incorporation of its work in local land use decision-making processes. The United Nations has a world-wide network of 507 Biosphere Reserves in 102 countries (www.unesco.org/mab/brlist.htm), as of November, 2002. There are now 11 Biospheres in Canada, two of which are located in British Columbia (Mount Arrowsmith and Clayoquot). Canadian Biospheres receive support from the Canadian National Committee for UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Program (www.unesco.org/mab), and from the Canadian Biosphere Reserve Association (www.cbra-acrb.ca). The Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve (MABR) is situated on southeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, across the Strait of Georgia from Vancouver and just north of the Island's City of Nanaimo. The MABR covers about 800 square kilometres of land, and an additional marine area of about ...