THE SILVER JUBILEE OF MAB AND ITS REVIVAL

The Biosphere Conference was organized by UNESCO and took place in Sep tember 1968, which was the first time that the word Biosphere became p art of common, non-scientific language, and was the first intergovernm ental conference on environmental problems. It sought to combine, effe ctively, conservation and the wise use of natural resources - thus adv ocating for the first time publicly the concept of 'sustainable develo pment'. That pioneering Conference also gave birth to the intergovernm ental programme on Man and the Biosphere (MAB). After thorough prepara tions, this innovative and ambitious programme was progressively devel oped and the present paper describes briefly its evolution and main ac hievements, stressing both the merits and the pitfalls of an intergove rnmental approach. It also recalls the times of uncertainty for MAB, d ue mainly to its very broad scope in a period of shrinking means and s upport, while stressing the value of this unique research venture as a preadapted response to the challenges of UNCED and Agenda 21. In its later part, the paper indicates the reasons why, on the occasion of it s 25th birthday, MAB is likely to take a new departure, along the line s set out by its Coordinating Council in January 1993. It outlines the future areas of concentration, centred on an expanded and strengthene d network of Biosphere Reserves, while focusing on the study and prote ction of biodiversity as well as on networks of comparative studies on sustainable land-use and encouraging all the time regional cooperativ e approaches.