Invitation to join Biosphere Project

From Hop E.  The Caldera Environment Centre Inc (CEC) invites local community groups and individuals to form an affiliated coalition to lobby Australian governments (at all three levels) to nominate the Border Ranges bio region as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

Biosphere Reserves were promoted as a conservation/sustainability tool and a major part of the ‘Man and the Biosphere’ (MAB) program arising from the Earth Conference in Rio de Janeiro (1992).

The educational, scientific and cultural arguments and resources for this project are contained in the following documents and DVD’s:

•	The UNESCO ‘Biosphere Conference’ (1968).

•	The Report from the ‘Club of Rome’, ‘Limits to Growth’ published 1972.

•	The Report of the Brundtland Commission to UNESCO, ‘Our Common Future’, published 1987.

•	The proceedings from the Earth Conference in Rio de Janeiro (1992) and Johannesburg (2002).

•	The proceedings from the United Nations Climate Change Conferences in Kyoto,  Japan (1997); Bali, Indonesia (2007); Copenhagen, Denmark (2009); and recently in Cancun, Mexico (2010).

•	The findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

•	Reports from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO, the Atmospheric Research Dept., Australian Academy of Science, NASA etc.

•	‘The Living Earth’ by Mary White.

•	‘Remnants of Gondwana’ edited by Kitching, Braithwaite and Cavanaugh.

•	‘The Border Ranges Rainforest Biodiversity Management Plan’ (Commonwealth, Queensland, and New South Wales Governments).

•	Northern Rivers Catchment Management Plan.

	Local Biodiversity Plan and Bush Futures Plan.

•	‘Byron Underwater’, film on DVD.

•	‘Secrets of the Rainforest’, film on DVD.

“In principle support” has been given by NSW authorities like the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority and the North East Regional  
Office, of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.  Support was given by the Commonwealth Government Department of Environment some eight years ago.


We ask all participating community groups and individuals to write an old fashioned letter of support on paper to:
”To Whom It May Concern”
c/- Caldera Environment Centre Inc.
PO Box 5090
SOUTH MURWILLUMBAH NSW 2484
Give your “in principle” support.

The main themes of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve are:
•	Conservation/Regeneration/Reconciliation of local indigenous wildlife, people and culture.
A move towards Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD)* and triple bottom line accountability.

•	Respect for and celebration of the natural landscape character and features e.g. headlands, escarpments and ridge lines; streams, rivers and estuaries including riparian buffers. An example of this would be “The Green Cauldron” initiative by the Commonwealth Government.
•	To act as a living laboratory so we may test ideas concerning sustainability through monitoring and support.

*”Sustainable development” would include a concerted and conscious effort to reduce our carbon and ecological footprints, e.g.

•	Population restraint/constraint 
•	Move towards low carbon industry and economy
•	Move towards low growth/steady state economy
•	Cultivation of local organic fruit and vegetables
•	On-site collection of water, grey water treatment
•	Composting of household by-products etc.
•	On-site solar hot water panels, photo-voltaic panels, wind turbines etc.
•	Sustainable town planning and building initiatives including public renewable electric transport, bicycle and pedestrian paths, affordable and renewable housing etc.

The UNESCO Biosphere Reserve concept provides an aspirational model/ template for a worldwide web of reserves.  Ideally, the whole planet should be a biosphere reserve.  There are currently 564 biospheres reserve sites in 109 countries worldwide, and 15 in Australia.  The Border Ranges and Noosa Biosphere Reserves could provide green belt buffers/lungs at either end of the urbanized strip we call the Moreton Basin megalopolis, centred on Brisbane but including the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast.  Approximately 250 kilometres of concrete and bitumen.  Give us a break.  Give peace a chance.  

For more information on Australia’s Biosphere Reserves go to:  http://www.environment.gov.au/parks/biosphere/ . Or

Please find below, ‘Frequently Asked Questions – Biosphere Reserves’, followed by a ‘form letter’ to assist; or please write your own version.

Thank You,


E. Hopkins (Hop.e)
Co-ordinator, 
Caldera Environment Centre

 

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