Obtawaing and Sonoran Desert Get Positive Reviews from MAB Committee

Solstice Sunset and Mayfly hatch at Obtawaing Biosphere Region. Photo by John Den Uyl.

Two Biosphere Regions (BRs) with indigenous connections and transboundary relationships with Mexico and Canada respectively are on their way to renewal by the international Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program. Still pending but very close to final acceptance in fall 2021 are the two renamed BRs, Obtawaing in northern Michigan and Sonoran Desert in southwestern Arizona.

To maintain their recognition by the MAB Program, all sites in in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves submit periodic reviews on a 10-year cycle to demonstrate progress in meeting the UNESCO MAB Program goals for conservation, sustainable development and logistical support. The National Park Service and the Estes Park Environmental Center co-sponsored a workshop in 2016 in Estes Park, Colorado to provide guidance and facilitate development of periodic reviews by BRs. Twenty-eight BRs submitted periodic reviews to the MAB Program. Obtawaing and Sonoran Desert will be the final two of the 28 sites to receive acceptance by the MAB Program.

A committee of experts called the International Advisory Committee on Biosphere Reserves (IACBR) reviews and comments annually on periodic reviews and makes recommendations to the MAB International Coordinating Council (ICC) for final action. This spring the IACBR reported that the Obtawaing and Sonoran Desert periodic reviews meet the guidance of the MAB Program. Their recommendations were forwarded to the ICC for action this fall. The ICC typically accepts the IACBR recommendations.

Obtawaing is the new BR name derived from the Anishinaabe language that signifies its central location within the North American Laurentian Great Lakes Basin and respect for Native American-First Nation tribal nations and lands in the BR identifying as Anishinaabe (also known as the People of the Three Fires, consisting of Ottawa, Chippewa, and Pottawattamie members) who are in discussion about the BR.

The Obtawaing BR Area of Cooperation includes state and national parks and forests, the University of Michigan Biological Station, other conservation areas, and private lands and rural communities. Proximity to the Canadian Niagara Escarpment BR and the Georgian Bay BR, both of which share Lake Huron shorelines, cultures and environmental attributes with the Obtawaing BR, provides potential for productive transboundary interactions and cooperation with Canada.

The Sonoran Desert BR Periodic Review provides a Plan of Cooperation with actions to work with Department of the Interior public land managers (Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, Bureau of Land Management, and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument) and with rural populations in and around the communities of Ajo and Why, Arizona. Led by the International Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA), a nongovernmental organization in Ajo, Arizona, the BR will build on its cooperative relationship with El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar, a Mexican-designated Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage site across the border adjacent to the Sonoran Desert BR. As the BR moves forward, it will respect the rights of the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Hia C-ed O'odham and learn from their indigenous cultural connections to tribal and ancestral lands in and around the BR in Southwestern Arizona.