The
Great Nicobar Biosphere island reserve, whose tropical wet evergreen forest
hosts a wealth of animal species and medicinal plants, joins a global list of
places named by UNESCO for promoting sustainable development based on local
community efforts and science.
The
International Coordinating Council of Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB-ICC)
under the United Nations Organisation for Education, Science and Culture
designated the 103,870 hectares Great Nicobar reserve as protected, in its
meeting in Paris, this week, according to a statement released by the body.
The
reserve which encompasses a large part of the island ofGreat Nicobar is home to
to indigenous Shompen people, semi-nomadic hunters living inland, and the
Nicobarese, who are coastal dwellers dependent on fishing and horticulture.
The
6,381 inhabitants of the region derive a wide variety of biological resources
from their environment such as medicinal plants and other non-timber forest
products.
The
bioreserve is home to 1,800 animal species, including 200 species of meiofauna
in the coastal zone. Biosphere Reserves are sites chosen by the MAB program to
experiment with different approaches to the management of terrestrial, marine
and coastal resources as well as fresh water.
They
also serve as in situ laboratories for sustainable development. The designation
is not binding under any law but is aimed at building and promoting a network
of places where people are attempting to mesh human activity with biological
and scenic assets.
Great
Nicobar joins the reserves at Simplipal (Orissa), Nokrek (Meghalaya), Pachmarhi
(Madhya Pradesh), Nilgiri (Tamil Nadu), the Gulf of Mannar (Tamil Nadu),
Sunderban (West Bengal) Nanda Devi (Uttarakhand) and Achanakmar-Amarkantak
(Madhyapradesh and Chhatisgarh) which are already on UNESCO's list.
Among
the other 11 global sites included in the new batch of UNESCO bioreserve is the
reserve in Alakol Kazakhstan, which includes wetlands of world significance.
It
is an important Indian bird migration route, a water bird habitat and
aggregation site.
The
other sites are Gochang (Republic of Korea) Macizo de Cajas (Ecuador), Marais
Audomarois (France), Marinas Corunesas e Terras do Mandeo (Spain), Mont-Viso
(France), Monteviso Area della Biosfera del Monviso (Italy), Real Sitio de San
Ildefonso-El Espinar (Spain), Snake Island, Laotie Mountain, (China), Terres de
l' Ebre, Catalonia (Spain), Ziarat Juniper Forest (Pakistan) and
Ordesa-Vinamala (Spain).
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