Governance in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves Project Activities

Biosphere reserves are ideally implemented to support the practical implementation of sustainable development goals in the landscape in which they are found. However, this is closely linked to the effectiveness of their individual governance and management structures. Therefore, understanding each biosphere reserve’s governance and management is of great importance.

All biosphere reserves have their own different goals and challenges when it comes to implementation in their regions. Due to this diversity, UNESCO’s Man & the Biosphere Programme (MAB) has created the guidelines to ensure that the shared responsibility holders have the power to choose what initiatives are applicable to their implementation needs.

Achieving sustainable development remains a main priority for biosphere reserves. Since the concept of sustainable development is broad, this gives the biosphere reserve the chance to choose its own governance models suitable for their region that will support the achievement of this goal. Due to this fact, it is important to assess the governance models of each biosphere reserve to see if still fulfills its function as per the requirement of the UNESCO MAB. The current study will serve to assess the current implemented governance model in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve (VBR) of north-eastern South Africa and find out how the chosen governance models facilitates socio-economic collaboration between the VBR, the conservation authorities operational within the landscape and local resident communities.

This research is in progress. It is being undertaken as Masters Research at the University of the Witwatersrand by Ms. Nobuhle Makhathini under the supervision of  Drs Kaera Coetzer (University of the Witwatersrand) and Lutendo Mugwedi (University of Venda)