Man and the biosphere UNESCO

Man and the Biosphere (MAB) is part of a broader UNESCO initiative on the environment and its resources, comprising well-established programmes of international scientific cooperation in such areas as oceans and their resources, coastal zones, hydrology, earth sciences, natural hazards and environmental education. MAB and related UNESCO activities contribute to various sources of information. As a reflection of the breadth of its activities on the international stage, MAB produced 35 related titles published by the Secretariat in 1989-90, in different languages and formats. Further, MAB's national committee published more than 300 titles and reports in the same period. NATURE AND RESOURCES The UNESCO quarterly review Nature and resources is closely aligned to MAB and places in context the role of scientific information in the process of decision-making on environmental issues. It was published first in 1%5, and its 30,000 copies are published in English, French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese. The review has been completely reformatted recently, using colour and a more modern lay-out. Each issue is centred on a particular issue and contains five or six articles reviewing research on resource management for sustainable development. The first of these new-look numbers January-March 1990) was devoted to the problem of remote-sensing. Managing the coastal environment and ocean, and coastal concerns were dealt with in the other 1990 issues. In 1991 issues focus on natural hazards and tropical forests. MAN AND THE BIOSPHERE SERIES This series of books was launched in December 1989 in co-production with UNESCO (Paris) and the Parthenon Publishing Group, Carnforth (UK). It was initiated in order to communicate findings generated by the MAB programme to a wider public than that of the existing UNESCO series of technical notes and state-ofknowledge reports. The new series addresses a whole range of questions concerning natural resources and the environment, and is aimed primarily at university students in their final years, and at scientists and resource managers who are not necessarily ecological specialists. They take the form of case studies by specialist researchers, and also provide global and regional syntheses of comparative research from different sites or countries, and precise assessments of knowledge or methodological approaches based on scientific meetings, commissioned reports or the work of expert bodies. The variety of subject is wide: the eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs, the form and function of an Amazon forest being destroyed by slash-andburn practices, the implications of large-scale felling in tropical rainforest in the Gogol valley of Papua New Guinea for the manufacture of pulpwood, sustainable small-island development and environmental management, regeneration and management of tropical forest. The first titles are initially published in English. MAB DIGESTS These are small format reports on a variety of subjects, summarising the findings of MAB's activities: overviews of on-going or future projects within MAB, and research proposals. The free distribution goes to different recipients according to subject matter, planners, decision-makers, collaborators in the MAB programme, technical and research personnel. REPORTS Six digests were published in 1989-90,thesearebasedonMAB experience. Man belongs to the Earth was first published in English and Spanish by UNESCO in 1988 and was reprinted in English in 1990. Other language versions are currently in preparation. The biennial report on MAB for 1987-88 (UNESCO 1989). The purpose of these is to give MAB findings a more popular dimension. INFOMAB InfoMAB is a newsletter published twice a year in English and Spanish to keep all the many people linked with MAB activities all over the world informed of them. Man and the Biosphere MAB Division of Ecological Sciences UNESCO 7 place de Fontenoy 75700 Paris FRANCEMan and the Biosphere (MAB) is part of a broader UNESCO initiative on the environment and its resources, comprising well-established programmes of international scientific cooperation in such areas as oceans and their resources, coastal zones,..