Challenges of global change for Mountain Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites

Article by: Eduard Müller, UNESCO Chair director, UCI president

Biosphere reserves and world heritage sites are special places on Earth. Their management differs widely, while in the first we seek for an integrated approach between conservation and development, based on research and education, in the latter we seek the conservation of Outstanding Universal Values above all other objectives. Nevertheless, both are being threatened by climate change, the most severe consequence of global change. The Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 recently released gives clear evidence that biodiversity loss and its drivers are increasing.

Greenhouse gases rise with a clear correlation to population increase. The consumptive development model of society constantly increases the demand for natural capital and yet, natural capital is still to be more widely included in the maximization process of our economies.

Changes in elevation allow mountains to achieve a great diversity of life but slight shifts in temperature also make mountains particularly susceptible to climate change. More and more evidence is being gathered throughout the world on these changes. While scientists and policy makers still talk about shifts in ecosystem ranges, this is not what is being observed in some complex ecosystems. While ranges in tree species are slowly but clearly climbing the mountains we are now observing disaggregation of ecosystems, where some more viable species change their range affecting in very diverse ways the composition of existing ecosystems and, with time, will probably lead to the establishment of new ecosystems altogether, with lower diversity and thus complexity of life forms and interactions.

In tropical ecosystems, changes are happening with great speed. Monteverde, which lies within the Water and Peace Biosphere Reserve in Costa Rica has been a place for climate and biodiversity research; the Golden Toad, extinct in 1987 is known as the first official record of species extinctions due to current climate change. Up to date, over 30 amphibian species have disappeared from this ecosystem. Other species have been affected, such as the quetzal, an emblematic bird species which has attracted tourists for decades to these mountains. This species nests at higher altitudes whereas the toucan (Ramphastus sulfuratus) used to inhabit low land forests. Today we have both species co-existing in the same habitat, the toucan as well as other birds has climbed the mountain, probably due to higher temperatures. The result is that the toucan is now poaching on the quetzal’s nests and the quetzal still does not recognize it as an enemy. Additionally, the toucan is poaching on the wood peckers nests and these are the ones that make the nesting holes used by the quetzals.

Other species have also moved. There are reports of ants for the first time in higher altitudes, who now can freely predate many insect and plant species that are not prepared to defend themselves. Low-land more aggressive bat species are affecting the populations of endemic niche-specific bat species.

Changes in temperature are leading to broader impacts by changing the cloud formation dynamics. Many cloud forests are suffering severe changes due to higher cloud formation. As Monteverde, Guanacaste and Amistad National Parks, both world heritage sites have been facing rapid changes. Many of these are still based on verbal reports from park staff and tour guides, though some scientific papers have been published. In Guanacaste, massive die-offs of the cloud forest ecosystems have been observed. The mountain chain can now be observed cloud free very frequently while a few years back it was exceptional to see the mountain tops, which were permanently cloud covered. Now the clouds condense at higher altitudes and just fly past the forests. The rapid changes are going to force conservation efforts to use empiric sources more and more. It seems almost impossible for science to catch up. This also leads to the need to use more community based knowledge systems on ecosystem function and species relationships. This has proven to be especially valid in indigenous communities, as is the case with ecosystem restoration practices used by the Lacandon Indians in Montes Azules y Mexico.

Integrated land-use and management systems and their relationship with biodiversity conservation must also be revised. According to Janzen, the classical concept of biological corridor will not be effective for long-term conservation; large areas of undisturbed ecosystems seem to be the best solution. Nevertheless, these areas are no longer available in many of the smaller more populated developing countries. The biosphere reserve concept has bigger advantages than the world heritage site based conservation. The recent trends for establishment of large biosphere reserves and the expansion of existing ones to include not only more core zones but the greater landscape altogether coupled with the zoning system that requires buffer and connectivity areas that are managed under sustainable use principles will probably offer greater possibilities for climate change adaptation of species, ecosystems and communities than world heritage sites that might be isolated from the surrounding landscape due to human activities. The fact that several natural world heritage sites are actually the core zones of biosphere reserves makes a stronger case for the UNESCO sites. The establishment of biosphere reserves “around” existing world heritage sites seems to be a good path to follow. Nevertheless, in order to reach the full benefits of biosphere reserves there must be a better on-the-ground implementation of the concept. The Man and the Biosphere Madrid Action Plan has to be implemented to its full extent in all existing biosphere reserves.