The UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) covers internationally designated areas of high biological and cultural diversity, known as biosphere reserves, which are meant to demonstrate a balanced relationship between people and nature (e.g. encourage sustainable development). They are created under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB).
Campania is an administrative region of Italy, located in the south of the country; most of it is in the southwestern portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the island of Capri. The capital is Naples. Campania has a population of 5,575,025 as of 2025, making it Italy's third-most populous region, and, with an area of 13,590 km (5,247 sq mi), its most densely populated. Based on its GDP, Campania is also the most economically productive region in Southern Italy and the 7th most productive in the whole country. Naples' urban area, which is in Campania, is the eighth most populous in the European Union. The region is home to 10 of the 58 UNESCO sites in Italy, including Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Royal Palace of Caserta, the Amalfi Coast, the Longobardian Church of Santa Sofia in Benevento, and the Historic Centre of Naples. In addition, Campania's Mount Vesuvius is part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The region plays a key international role in international diplomacy, since it is home to NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Naples and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean.
The Campania's hinterland was inhabited from the beginning of the 1st millennium BC by the Osci, Samnites, and Etruscans, while between the 8th and 7th centuries BC its coastal areas were colonised by the ancient Greeks (Magna Graecia). At that time, Capua was Campania's leading city, while Naples was an anomaly, being predominantly Greek-speaking.
The Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) is an intergovernmental scientific program, launched in 1971 by UNESCO, that aims to establish a scientific basis for the 'improvement of relationships' between people and their environments.
MAB engages with the international development agenda, especially the Sustainable Development Goals and the Post 2015 Development Agenda. The MAB programme provides a platform for cooperation in research and development. As of July 2024, 759 sites across 136 countries, including 22 transboundary sites, have been included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The reserves cover more than 5% of the world’s surface and are home to over 260 million people.
The river Ticino (/tɪˈtʃiːnoʊ/ tih-CHEE-noh, Italian: [tiˈtʃiːno]; Lombard: Tesin; French and German: Tessin; Latin: Ticīnus) is the most important perennial left-bank tributary of the Po. It has given its name to the Swiss canton through which its upper portion flows.
It is one of the four major rivers taking their source in the Gotthard region, along with the Rhône, Reuss and Rhine.The river rises in the Val Bedretto in Switzerland at the frontier between the cantons of Valais and Ticino right below the Nufenen Pass, is fed by the glaciers of the Alps and later flows through Lake Maggiore, which traverses the border to Italy. The Ticino joins the Po a few kilometres downstream (along the Ticino) from Pavia. It is about 248 kilometres (154 mi) long. The stretch of river between Lake Maggiore and the confluence in the Po is included in the Parco naturale lombardo della Valle del Ticino, a Nature reserve included by UNESCO in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
Žuvintas Biosphere Reserve (Lithuanian: Žuvinto biosferos rezervatas) is located in the south of Lithuania, in the southern part of the Middle Lithuanian Lowlands, about 30km east of Alytus. It encompasses 18,490 ha of lakes, wetlands, mires, peatbogs and forests. This variety of habitats supports a rich biodiversity. As the largest wetland complex with a lake in Lithuania is protected by the reserve, Žuvintas Biosphere Reserve is an important place for waterfowl to nest and as a stopover during migration.
Its nature protection status dates back to 1937, it is the oldest nature protection area in Lithuania. Nominated in 2011, it is the first and only site in Lithuania recognised under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme and added to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is compiled and managed by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, an executive agency of the United Nations Environment Programme. It uses the IUCN and CBD definitions of protected areas to determine whether a site should be included in the WDPA. The extent to which each area and the resources within are protected can vary significantly.
The largest protected areas – those exceeding an area of 250,000 square kilometres – are listed below in order of total area protected. All are marine protected areas except for Northeast Greenland National Park – which is mostly terrestrial but also has a marine component – and three entirely terrestrial biosphere reserves in Brazil. Protected areas with multiple coterminous or overlapping designations (e.g. Northeast Greenland National Park and the corresponding Biosphere Reserve) are listed only once.
Biogradska Gora (Montenegrin: Биоградска Гора, pronounced [bîoɡradskaː ɡǒra]) is a forest and a national park in Montenegro within the Kolašin municipality that is recognized as one of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The landscape is one of mountain ridges, glacial lakes, and temperate forest.
The Nicobar Islands /ˈnɪkəbɑːr/ are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean. They are located in Southeast Asia, 150 kilometres (93 mi) northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea. Located 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) southeast of the Indian subcontinent, across the Bay of Bengal, they are part of India, as the Nicobar district within the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Together with the Andaman Islands to their north, the Nicobar Islands serve as a maritime boundary between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east.
In 2013, UNESCO added the Great Nicobar Island to its World Network of Biosphere Reserves, a list of internationally designated protected areas.