UN Official Hopes That Morocco Hosts African Arab Biosphere Reserves Initiative

Rabat, 21/11/2017 (MAP) – UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences Flavia Schlegel, expressed, on the sidelines of the UN Climate Conference (COP23) which recently closed in Bonn, her wish to see Morocco host the African Arab Biosphere Reserves Initiative (AABRI) and assume its secretariat, along with UNESCO and ISESCO for the next five years.

In a release by the High Commission for Water, Forests and Combating Desertification, Schlegel welcomed the commitment of the High Commission for the AABRI implementation, following the successful 2nd Arab-African meeting on biosphere reserves, held in Agadir on Oct.17-19, 2017.

The genesis of the “Biosphere Reserves Initiative as a Climate Change Observatory and Sustainable Development Laboratory in the Arab and African Region, with the water sector at the heart of the initiative”, started during the first joint Arab-African meeting IHP- MAB: “First Joint Arab / African IHP and MAB Meeting: Towards COP 22 and SDGs”, in Tangier-Morocco from 18 to 20 October 2016 and the “call of Tangier ” launched at the COP22 in Marrakech in November 2016 in a side event in the Blue Zone.

The AABRI is one of the most important post-COP22 actions and fits into UNESCO and ISESCO’s strategies to fight against climate change.