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Looking after the nest Since 25 years Jane Robertson Vernhes works actively for the "Man and the Biosphere" programme of the UNESCO. On the day of the departure, the Biosphere Tour visited her in the office and got some insights into her work. Miss Vernhes, what is your job? I am responsible for the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. My job is to make sure that the message of the "Man and the Biosphere" programme is conveyed and that basic texts are implemented. As you know, cooperation is the essential idea of the the MaB programme. Countries themselves decide to participate in the World Network, to take responsibility and to share information in order to see what tools can be worked out to solve global environmental problems. Our job is to bring these people together and help them to apply what they learn. We have no police function: Biosphere reserves always belong to people and in the end it is them who decide. And what are you working on today? I am preparing a brochure called "Biosphere Reserves: Benefits and opportunities". Furthermore, I am going to review our "Handbook for Biosphere Reserves". Preparing these documents is an important task: Imagine the World Network of Biosphere Reserves like a big orchestra - my responsibility is that they read the same paper. Do you like this job?
Furthermore, I am working here since 25 years and I am looking at the proposals of the new biosphere reserves. While looking through this dossiers, I can see all these new tendencies and trends. The biosphere reserves are fascinating social experiments, reflecting the changes of society. How many of them did you already visit? Visiting biosphere reserves is not my job, this is rather the work of the field offices. I am rather traveling through the documents and proposals of biosphere reserves, like a "mother hen" looking after the nest. During your 25 years, was there any situation that was especially important to you personally - an emotional, funny, or otherwise special story? Hm ... there are no special anecdotes, rather a rainbow with many colors. It is very moving when there are some outstanding reserves, for example the story of the Gulf of Mannar in India. And personally, I am emotionally attached to Russia and Central Asia. See, many people talk about poverty in Africa and Eastern Asia, but Central Asia is often overseen, like a lost continent. Most people just don't know about their problems of poverty and AIDS. Biosphere reserves there don't receive money from the government and people that worked there with enthusiasm since years are more and more frustrated. What do you think is the problem of the biosphere reserves? Why do so few people know about them? If you hit it on the nail, the problem lies in the interdisciplinarity of the concept. It includes economic, ecological and social aspects at once, and is therefore difficult to communicate. Take for example the World Heritage Programme: It includes the cultural and natural pearls of the world. This idea is easy to understand, it fits into the slots. The biosphere reserves, however, are not known and not easy to grap on. Because they go against this tendency of separating the disciplines, against this "silo effect". We are often impaired by too rigid institutions or government agencies that do not understand the principle of and the need for interdisciplinarity. I am not against "disciplines", but an openness of mind is very important. You see it on the ground, in the reserves themselves: The "silos" disappear and real dialogue emerges. Biospheres reserves are very successful locally but often not supported or understood in the governments. 07.09.2005 15:00h More Articles |
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