Do You Know What a Biosphere Reserve Is?
Tags: Nature, Tourism, Conservation, Enterprise, Scotland

Do You Know What a Biosphere Reserve Is?

Photo by Matthew Ronder-Seid on Unsplash

I live in the beautiful county of Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. The county as a whole is sparsely populated and much of it is forested. There are many small communities and the economy is strongly biased toward agriculture. Not far from where I live, there is a designated Biosphere Reserve which encompasses the valleys and courses of the rivers Cree, Fleet, Ken-Dee, Nith, Doon, Water of Girvan and Stinchar, along with the rugged coastline.

Throughout the World, UNESCO has supported sites called Biosphere Reserves. Each and every one exhibits a unique environment, binding together the local people, small industry and sustainable use of natural resources.

‘The world consists of many different ecosystems, and in every one of them, people have learned how to live in harmony with their environment for generations.

The role of a Biosphere Reserve is to uncover this knowledge, to use it, and to adapt it for the future.’

The ethos of the reserve is finding creative ways for people and nature to co-exist. This can cover a multitude of ventures. It begins with education. Children are encouraged to participate in outdoor education, learning about sustainability and conservation. As they grow, they can bring their knowledge to the development of small business while maintaining a code of protecting the environment.

In this area, the Biosphere Reserve is managed by an Independent partnership of individuals, small business and organisations who all have a vested interest in helping the local community thrive. They have all signed up to the following commitments.

§ Help to conserve the natural resources of the Biosphere

§ Support the economy to benefit people and nature

§ Promote cultural heritage and local products

§ Contribute to the health and well-being of the community

§ Develop knowledge, understanding and promote research

§ Raise awareness of the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere

Photo by Jason Pischke on Unsplash

The Southern Uplands Partnership have been active in promoting projects that enourage tourism:

‘Experiential tourism’, also known as ‘immersion travel’, allows people to focus on a place by meaningfully engaging with its heritage, people or other special characteristics.

The projects are grouped under six headings, heritage hubs, visiting, education and skills, natural landscapes, accessing, and understanding.

The heritage hubs consist of a number of somewhat neglected buildings, each with historical importance, which have needed a boost in support to launch them as visitor attractions.

Under the label of visiting, one of the projects has involved setting up a Dark Sky visitors centre providing information and used as a base for visitors who wish to access the renowned Dark Sky Park in the Galloway Forest. This centre is due to open in spring 2021, Covid-19 permitting.

The educational outreach programme encompasses a variety of projects which include a writing community, setting up biosphere explorer clubs through school visits aiming to take the children out into the environment and involving them in nature activities, dry stone wall building workshops. In the past there has been a Viking Encampment, food and farming days and cookery courses, green wood working and charcoal making.

In the natural landscape category, there are peat conservation works, red squirrel conservation plans, flood management strategies, fish stocking of lochs and nature reserve maintenance and development.

Access looks at improved signposting, pathway maintenance, setting up a canoe trail, community gardening ventures, siting of viewpoints to encourage visitors to stop.

Finally, in the understanding category, projects involve supporting the local Scots dialect, recording usage of words, investigating the origin of local names and archeological surveys and historic mapping .You can take a survey here about which Scots word you use in your everyday language.

50 Word Quiz — what Galloway words do you know or use? (Word version)