Deputy Chairman of the Kazakh National MAB Committee Dr. Tatiana Dujsebayeva participated in the 12th meeting of the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network MAB (VASBR), held in the Biosphere Reserve Shinan Dadohae (Republic of Korea) from 20 to 23 September 2011. 90 Korean and 20 international representatives of the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network (EABRN) from five countries - members EABRN (China, Japan, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation), as well as various experts from the Government of the Republic of Korea, representatives of regional UNESCO networks - SeaBRNet (Vietnam) and SACAM (Maldives and Sri Lanka) and representatives of the UNESCO Office (Beijing) participated in the meeting. Kazakhstan took part in the forum for the first time. The main theme of the conference was the implementation of the Madrid Plan of Action in the work of biosphere reserves of Asian and Pacific regions, with particular emphasis on the island and coastal reserves. The main objectives of the participation of the MAB National Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan are:
- presentation of Korgalzhyn Biosphere Reserve as the first Kazakhstan Biosphere Reserve nomination;
- introduce the EABRN members with plans of the National Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the organization of the MAB biosphere reserves in the coming years;
- Kazakhstan's accession to the East Asia Network of Biosphere Reserves and the establishment of closer relations with the National Committee of the Regions.
September 23, 2011 at a meeting of the conference, TN Duysebaevoy presented a report entitled "Restoring activities of the National MAB Committee and the development of programs for the organization of biosphere reserves in the Republic of Kazakhstan", which was declared the first nomination for Kazakhstan Korgalzhyn Biosphere Reserve, and outlined plans for 2012-2013.
The report has been received with great approval as an official announcement about the desire of the National MAB Committee of Kazakhstan to join the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network. Statement by the Kazakhstan National MAB Committee of Kazakhstan's about accession as a member of EABRN in the ensuing discussion of the report and analysis of the first results of the updated National MAB Committee of Kazakhstan participants with the unanimous support of representatives of all member countries EABRN was approved. This decision was recorded in the final resolution of of the meeting - in "Shinan statement" from 23.09.2011 (see below)
Shinan Statement
The 12th Meeting of the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network Shinan Dadohae Biosphere Reserve, Republic of Korea
20-23 September 2011
In Shinan Tidal Flat Centre, 110 (90 Korean and 20 International) representatives of the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network from five East Asian Member Countries (China, Japan, Mongolia, RO Korea and Russian Federation) as well as various experts from the Government of Republic of Korea, representatives from SeaBRNet (Vietnam), Representatives from SACAM (Maldives and Sri Lanka), Representative from Kazakhstan National MAB Committee and representatives of UNESCO Offices (Beijing) met, discussed the main theme of the 12th EABRN meeting on "Implementation of Madrid Action Plan in Biosphere Reserves of Asian and Pacific with special focus on Coastal and Island BRs" and presented country reports on biosphere reserves activities. They also discussed various issues related to the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network.
Resulting from an intensive and interactive process, the participants:
Extended special thanks and appreciation to the hosts of the meeting, the Korean MAB National Committee, Shinan Dadohae Biosphere Reserve and Korean National Commission for UNESCO; they also extended their appreciation to the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea for its continued professional and financial support to the EABRN and UNESCO Office Beijing for its concerted coordination;
Underlined the urgent need for the exchange and transfer of information and the sharing of experiences on Biosphere Reserve management among six member countries through their National Committees for MAB, relevant national partners, and biosphere reserves managers by following the successful experience of each other;
Supported the idea of having single unified Asia-Pacific Network for Biosphere Reserves, but raised many concerns on various issues related to funding, cultural and political differences. If everything works well we can possibly organize one regional event every four to six years in between the World Congress of Biosphere Reserves in order to have Asian voice heard in the global forum;
Called upon the MAB Secretariat to enhance its technical support for the submission of new UNESCO-MAB Biosphere Reserve nominations including Transboundary Biosphere Reserves (TBRs) through the EABRN Secretariat;
Committed themselves to develop transboundary, sisterhood and/or site-to-site cooperation between biosphere reserves for the conservation of biodiversity in the region;
Appreciated China and Russian MAB National Committees on signing the agreement on joint protection, research and ecological education activities of Changbaishan Biosphere Reserve (China) and Sikhote-Alin State Nature Biosphere Reserve (Russian Federation);
Called upon the EABRN Members and Secretariat to further strengthen its partnership with other related bilateral and multilateral organizations and institutions in the fields of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in order to explore the possibility of regional projects and technical cooperation;
Called upon the EABRN Secretariat to coordinate the priority activities with other sub- regional and regional MAB networks for cooperation and information sharing;
Agreed to encourage more participation of biosphere reserve managers in EABRN meetings;
Approved the application from Kazakhstan National Committee for the MAB Programme to become a member of the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network;
Called upon the EABRN Secretariat to mobilize additional funding for capacity building workshops, network meetings and other activities of EABRN from all member countries, private companies and other donors;
Agreed on the following decision of Ad-Hoc Committee meeting of EABRN Members:
Possible venue of 13th EABRN meeting:
In line with the rotation principle, the next meeting of the EARBN should be held in the DPRK. Unfortunately, as there was no delegation from DPRK, it was decided to strongly encourage the DPRK to hold the EABRN-13th meeting. The EABRN Secretariat was charged with the task of contacting the DPRK on this matter;
As a second option Russian Federation will host the EABRN-13th meeting in any one of the suitable Biosphere Reserve within EABRN and Russian MAB committed to generate additional funding support locally;
Possible focus is on “Biological and Social Consequences of Global Changes”;
5th EABRN Training:
Importance of capacity building of Biosphere Reserve managers and young scientists was recognized as one of the main priority in implementing MAP. The same with Chinese Academy of Sciences and other member states will be continued;
There are two main areas in which the training could be organized (i) Biological Inventory and Database Construction (ii) Remote Sensing and GIS for Biosphere Reserve Management;
In addition the EABRN secretariat requested the members to consider to provide partial support for travel to their candidates and Secretariat with the support from local organizers will take care of all expenses in Beijing;
More strict screening process for the selection of applicants should be employed for better communication of the training by Member States;
The EABRN Project Secretariat has been requested to continue the second phase of BRs Atlas for RO Korea and Russian Federation and develop the smart phone application to popularize the concept of Biosphere Reserves with younger generation. Both products will be contribution of Biosphere Reserves to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
With the generous additional financial support from Korean Ministry of Environment, the EABRN Secretariat should develop joint research projects between EABRN Biosphere Reserves and the results of these joint initiatives will be presented at the next EABRN Meeting.
There has been a request from the members to EABRN Secretariat to update regularly a list of events related to biodiversity and other main priorities of EABRN and circulate to all members and experts within EABRN region in a quarterly basis.
All the members are requested to provide the details of their activities to EABRN
Secretariat in order to share with all other members.
Jeungdo, 23 September 2011