RESEARCH

UNESCO is supporting global and regional observation to measure Abiotic, biodiversity, and social changes in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. An initiative called Biosphere Reserve Integrated Monitoring (BRIM) was launched in 1991.

It has undertaken abiotic, biodiversity, socio-economic and integrated monitoring in the World Network, and provided platforms for the integration of the resulting information/data.

In the proposed Kafa Coffee Biosphere Reserve scientific research on biodiversity is well under way along UNESCOs BRIM  guidelines:

• standardizing biological inventory measures for management and decision-making purposes
• integrating multiple databases related to monitoring
• improving communication between biosphere reserves
• promoting systematic exchange of scientific information
• facilitating access to information on biosphere reserves
• surveying the research and monitoring potential of biosphere reserves
• supporting interdisciplinary monitoring of biosphere reserves

BRIM has also notably used the results emerging from research and monitoring in biosphere reserves for education and awareness purposes - thus addressing one of the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Read more about UNESCOs biosphere reserve integrated monitoring (BRIM) approach.