The UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) includes special areas around the world that have many different kinds of plants, animals, and cultures. These areas, called biosphere reserves, show how people and nature can live together in harmony. They help promote ways to use resources without harming the environment for future generations. These reserves are part of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB).

Mission

The World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR), part of the UNESCO MAB Program, is a group of special places around the world. It helps people and nature work together to protect the environment and support communities. This network uses shared knowledge, talks with people to solve problems, reduces poverty, improves health, honors cultural traditions, and helps societies deal with climate change. It also encourages teamwork between countries by sharing ideas, teaching new skills, and spreading successful methods for protecting the planet.

Network

As of September 2025, there are 784 biosphere reserves in 142 countries (including 25 areas that cross country borders) located in every region of the world.

Article 4 of the "Statutory Framework of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves," by UNESCO, outlines general requirements for an area to be designated as a biosphere reserve. These requirements are:

• The area must include a variety of ecosystems that represent major biogeographic regions, including different levels of human activity.
• The area must be important for protecting biological diversity.
• The area must provide a chance to test and show ways to achieve sustainable development on a regional level.
• The area must be large enough to support the three main functions of biosphere reserves: conservation, development, and logistic support.
• The area must be divided into zones, such as core areas, buffer areas, and outer transition areas, to manage its functions.
• The area must have plans for the involvement of public authorities, local communities, and private interests in its management.
• The area must also include: ways to manage human activities in buffer zones; a management plan for the biosphere reserve; an authority or system to carry out the plan; and programs for research, monitoring, education, and training.

Article 9 of the Statutory Framework states that the status of each biosphere reserve must be reviewed every ten years based on a report from the responsible authority. If a biosphere reserve no longer meets the criteria from Article 4, the country must take steps to address the issues. If the reserve still does not meet the criteria after a reasonable time, it will no longer be considered part of the network.

Article 9 also allows a country to remove a biosphere reserve under its control from the network. As of July 2018, 45 sites had been removed from the World Network of Biosphere Reserves by 9 countries. Some reserves were removed because they no longer met updated, stricter requirements, such as zonation or size.

In June 2017, during a meeting of the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB ICC) in Paris, the United States removed 17 sites (out of its previous total of 47) from the program.