U.S. Quietly Removes 17 Sites From UN Biosphere Reserve Network

GR:  Few attacks on nature would be more pointless than this. Is the goal simply to smash anything beautiful and valuable for all people? Of course, somebody out there has a plan to make money on these sites.

Who did this? Trump has probably never heard of the Biosphere Reserves.

Embarrassing that while we remove sites, other countries, including Russia, are adding sites.

The following by Lorraine Chow: “The U.S. has quietly withdrawn 17 sites from the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves program. As first reported by National Geographic, the sites include a number of national forests, preserves and reserves from Alaska to the Virgin Islands (see list below). There were previously 47 biosphere reserves in the U.S. The move was made during the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme meeting in Paris this week. Bulgaria also removed three sites.

“Prior to this year, a total of 18 sites had been removed from the program since 1997, by seven countries,” National Geographic noted.

“It’s not currently clear why the U.S. and Bulgaria asked to remove those sites: requests for comment have not yet been returned. In the past, sites were removed after countries were no longer able to meet the requirements of the program for protecting them.”

“According to the United Nations, biosphere reserves are nominated by national governments and remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located. As detailed by the conservation nonprofit George Wright Society, the biosphere program was launched in the 1970s to establish internationally designated protected areas, help minimize the loss of biological diversity, raise awareness on how cultural diversity and biological diversity affect each other, and promote environmental sustainability. But over the years, the program has been criticized by certain individuals and groups as—per this Infowars post—a United Nations “land grab” of American landmarks.

“The George Wright Society writes: “A large, almost bewildering variety of charges have been alleged about biosphere reserves. Many of these charges revolve around a basic fear and distrust of the United Nations. This category of objections includes such claims as the United Nations is poised to invade the United States, confiscate American land, impose some kind of ‘new world order’� on citizens here, and so forth. There is no truth whatsoever to these charges.”

The U.S. removed the following sites from the biosphere reserve program:

1. Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge – US Fish & Wildlife Service
2. Beaver Creek Experimental Watershed – US Forest Service

The Beaver Creek site is not far from Coldwater Farm in central Arizona (photo by Northern Arizona University).

More….–Lorraine Chow (U.S. Quietly Removes 17 Sites From UN Biosphere Reserve Network.)