Biosphere Reserves: learning spaces for sustainability

Abstract

Since 1976, the research on sustainable development practices at the Biosphere Reserves (BRs) of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme have yielded valuable experiences and built an important knowledge base. The practical knowledge acquired in that collection is presently dispersed and risks disappearing due to its diffuse nature, complexity, social changes, and lack of suitable learning structures. However, the collaboration between BRs’ managers as knowledge carriers and scientists from different disciplines, allows transformation of diffuse practical knowledge into scientific knowledge for Sustainability Science, which may be applied elsewhere, such as in the formation of rural development and sustainability professionals. With that purpose in mind, the Spanish Biosphere Reserve Network (comprising of 48 BRs) is now developing a “Knowledge Network”, DialogosRB.net project. In it, BRs’ managers and scientists, and together with experts in communication and information technologies, have agreed to work as a collective intelligence unit. This article presents the underlying reflections of this project. The results from the Knowledge Network will be available at www.dialogosrb.net on 2018 (initially in Spanish).