Glacier Bay-Admiralty Island BR Accepted by MAB Council

Up close and personal with a tidewater glacier at Glacier Bay. NPS photo.

To maintain their recognition by MAB, all biospheres in the World Network must submit Periodic Reviews on a 10-year cycle to demonstrate progress in meeting the MAB Program goals and criteria. NPS and the Estes Park Environmental Center co-sponsored a workshop in 2016 in Estes Park, Colorado to provide guidance and facilitate periodic reviews by all U.S. biospheres. The U.S. process has ultimately led to 28 biospheres submitting Periodic Reviews and 19 other biospheres electing to withdraw. (Under the MAB Exit Strategy, withdrawn sites may consider submitting a new nomination to MAB at any time.)

As part of their annual deliberations, delegates from 34 nations met from June 17 to 21, 2019, at the 31st session of the UNESCO MAB International Coordinating Council (ICC) in Paris to act on the status of periodic reviews, including the Glacier Bay – Admiralty Island BR submission. The ICC accepted the recommendation from the International Advisory Commission on Biosphere Reserves (IACBR) that the Glacier Bay – Admiralty Island Periodic Review meets the MAB criteria. The ICC also accepted minor revisions such as name changes and zoning maps from Yellowstone – Grand Teton, Virginia Coast, and Apalachicola (Florida) Biosphere Regions.

Glacier Bay – Admiralty Island in Alaska was one of three U.S. periodic reviews still pending as of 2018, along with Organ Pipe Cactus, Arilzona and University of Michigan Biological Station Biosphere Reserves. In September, Organ Pipe Cactus submitted its periodic review and requested a name change to Sonoran Desert Biosphere Region. The UM Biological Station also provided an update letter, draft periodic review and a requested name change to Obtawaing Biosphere Region. Both were submitted through the National Park Service and State Department, for consideration by the IACBR and action by the ICC in June 2020 in Lagos, Nigeria. A map of the 28 currently active biospheres is available at georgewrightsociety.org/conservation or by contacting Cliff McCreedy at [e-mail].