China’s Yading, Foping and Qomolangma Biosphere Reserves were awarded UNESCO Biosphere Reserves Certificates at a ceremony held in Beijing on Wednesday.

Yasuyuki Aoshima, director and representative of the UNESCO Office for China, Mongolia, North and South Korea and Japan, urged the three reserves to achieve the goals of the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program and demonstrate their efforts and achievements to the world.

The Biosphere Reserve is a mechanism created under UNESCO’s MAB Program to promote conservation of nature coupled with economic development and capacity building in the fields of research, monitoring, training and education. Its major objectives are to study and improve the relationship between people and their environment and to conserve the environment through sustainable use of natural resources.

Yading joined UNESCO’s World Biosphere Reserve Network (WBRN) in 2003 and Foping and Qomolangma were approved in 2004.

Strict criteria must be met to gain WBRN membership, according to Aoshima.

The biosphere reserve should be representative of a major biogeographic region; contain landscapes, ecosystems or species to be conserved. It must also provide an opportunity to explore and demonstrate approaches to sustainable development and have a suitable management plan for conservation that encourages the involvement of all stakeholders, including local communities.

Yading, Foping and the Qomolangma meet all these criteria, according to Aoshima. “We warmly welcome them as a member of the World Network of UNESCO’s Biosphere Reserves,” he said.

The Yading Biosphere Reserve is located in Daocheng (Dabba) County, Garze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. Its distinctive climate and geography have bred a rich variety of plant and animal species, and the religious culture of the 30,000 Tibetans who live there has contributed greatly to the conservation of its ecosystem. Some 1,344 square kilometers are now under protection in the Yading reserve.

Located on the southern slope in the middle section of Qinling Mountain in Shaanxi Province, the Foping Biosphere Reserve is primarily a protected habitat of the giant panda. The animals' population density at Foping is the highest in the country, and in addition to the typical black-and-white pandas, brown-and-white and pure white specimens have been seen.

Qomolangma Nature Reserve in Tibet covers an area of 33,000 square kilometers and is home to a population of over 90,000. Qomolangma, known as Mount Everest in the West, is the highest mountain ecosystem in the world, with abundant resources and strong potential for greater development.

Xu Zhihong, chairman of the Chinese National Committee for MAB and also president of Peking University, said, “To be a world biosphere reserve is not only an honor but also an obligation and mission to protect the earth and set a good example for the sustainable development of mankind.”

Some 26 Chinese biosphere reserves are now included in the WBRN. China has also established its own network of 109 biosphere reserves.

(China.org.cn by Chen Qiuping, March 25, 2005)