OPINION/COMMENTARY

Here comes the U.N. – again! Few people know that back in 1970, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) launched an ambitious program to establish a global network of "Biosphere Reserves." This program, called "Man and the Biosphere," or MAB, is not the result of a U.N. treaty; it is simply an agreement among participating nations to manage designated land masses according to principles and strategies dictated by a UNESCO committee. In the United States, 47 U.N. Biosphere Reserves were designated without the approval of Congress or of any state legislature. While UNESCO continues to expand the global network of 440 reserves in 97 countries, the last three areas to be designated in the U.S. were blocked by local opposition. Proponents of this program were disappointed, but not dissuaded. Here they come again....