UNESCO Adds 14 New Biosphere Reserves on World Environment Day

On World Environment Day, June 5, 2026, UNESCO announced the designation of 14 new biosphere reserves spanning 14 countries, expanding its World Network of Biosphere Reserves to 797 sites across 145 countries. Three nations are welcomed into the network for the first time: Montenegro, Timor-Leste, and Aruba, which has had its entire territory designated as a biosphere reserve, only the second country in the world to achieve this distinction.

The announcement also marks a historic first: Québec City becomes the first predominantly urban biosphere reserve, demonstrating that cities themselves can be engines of ecological stewardship alongside their 635,000 residents.

Biosphere reserves prove every day that protecting nature and improving human lives are not competing goals. This year’s designations span every continent showing the full range of what it means to live in harmony with nature.

Khaled El-Enany, UNESCO Director-General

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What Are Biosphere Reserves?

UNESCO biosphere reserves are territories of outstanding ecological value where conservation, sustainable development, and scientific research coexist. Since the programme launched in 1971, these sites have served as living laboratories where communities, governments, and scientists work together to address biodiversity loss and climate change. Together with natural World Heritage sites and Global Geoparks, UNESCO-designated areas now protect more than 13 million square kilometres of terrestrial and marine ecosystems, advancing the Kunming-Montreal target of conserving 30% of land and sea by 2030.

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The 14 New Designations

Albania and Montenegro: Shkodër and Skadar, a Shared Lake

Two of the new designations share the same water. Lake Shkodër, the largest freshwater lake in the Balkans and a Ramsar wetland, sits at the heart of Albania’s new biosphere reserve, stretching from the Adriatic coast to mountain peaks above 2,000 metres. The site shelters over 280 bird species including the Dalmatian pelican and the critically rare Balkan lynx, alongside communities that have fished and farmed these shores for thousands of years.

On the other side of the border, Montenegro’s Skadar Lake Watershed Biosphere Reserve encompasses the same body of water and extends toward the Adriatic coast. The reserve records 1,396 taxa across wetlands, karst gorges, and riparian forests, and is home to more than a third of Montenegro’s population, including the capital Podgorica. In 2025, botanists discovered an entirely new plant genus within its boundaries, Petrolamium crnojevicii, one of the most significant botanical discoveries in Europe in recent decades. Together, the two reserves form a transboundary conservation system for one of Europe’s most ecologically rich lake systems.

Algeria: Theniet El Had

Perched above 1,300 metres in the Ouarsenis mountain range, the Theniet El Had reserve protects the only natural cedar grove in western Algeria. The Atlas cedar, an endemic North African tree increasingly stressed by climate change, dominates a landscape that also shelters over 600 vascular plant species and mammals including the caracal and Cuvier’s gazelle. Rock engravings dating back more than 8,000 years bear witness to the long human presence here.

Aruba: An Entire Island

The Aruba Island Biosphere Reserve encompasses 180 square kilometres of land and its surrounding Exclusive Economic Zone, covering 14 distinct ecosystems from dry forests and xeric shrublands to mangroves, coral reefs, and seagrass beds. The island sits within the Caribbean Islands Biodiversity Hotspot and hosts over 2,400 species, including 34 endemics. More than 20 species of sharks and rays move through its waters, and over 250 petroglyphs connect the landscape to its Caquetio ancestral heritage. Aruba joins the Cook Islands as one of only two countries to have designated their entire territory as a biosphere reserve.

Azerbaijan: Great Caucasus

Sweeping from lowland river valleys at 245 metres to alpine peaks above 3,600 metres, the Great Caucasus Biosphere Reserve sits along the southern slopes of one of the world’s great biodiversity hotspots. The reserve shelters 48 mammal species including brown bear, wolf, lynx, and the Dagestan tur, alongside more than a thousand plant species. At its core lies the Zagatala State Nature Reserve, established in 1929 and among the most intact remnants of the southern Caucasus slope ecosystem. Twenty-five local communities maintain traditions of transhumant pastoralism, beekeeping, hazelnut cultivation, and silk farming.

Cameroon: Takamanda and the Cross River Gorilla

Straddling the Cameroon-Nigeria border within the Guinean Forests of West Africa, the Takamanda-Cross River Gorilla Biosphere Reserve protects roughly one third of the global population of the Cross River gorilla, one of the most critically endangered great apes on Earth. Across its approximately 309,000 hectares, the reserve also shelters drill monkeys, Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees, forest elephants, and over 950 plant species, many endemic. Bantu-speaking communities and Mbororo pastoralists maintain sacred grove traditions and totemic species protections that have functioned as conservation mechanisms for generations, and women-led cooperatives sustainably harvest forest products including bush mango and wild honey.

Canada: Québec City

The designation of Québec City marks a global first: a predominantly urban area recognised as a biosphere reserve. Home to 635,000 people across 566 square kilometres, the reserve is bordered by vast forests, crossed by 1,400 kilometres of waterways, and dotted with 80 lakes. The St. Lawrence River serves as a vital migratory corridor running through it all. The designation places reconciliation with the Wendat, Innu, and W8banaki Nations at its core, formally recognising it as a fourth function alongside conservation, development, and research. Université Laval anchors research efforts in urban ecological restoration and climate adaptation.

Iran: Dalankuh-Qamishlou

Nearly 875,000 hectares at the crossroads of the Zagros Mountains and the Iranian Central Plateau, this reserve ranges from alpine peaks above 4,000 metres down to semi-arid foothill steppes. The Persian leopard, wild goat, Isfahan ram, and golden eagle share habitat with relict plant species shaped by glacial history and medicinal plants including Ferula assa-foetida. Two distinct communities shape the landscape: Bakhtiari nomads whose ancient migratory routes trace the reserve’s ecological gradients, and Georgian communities in the Feridan valleys whose vernacular architecture and rainfed farming add a rare cultural layer.

Mongolia: Tost Toson Bumbiin Nuruu

Covering over 1.6 million hectares in Mongolia’s South Gobi Province, this reserve sits at a dramatic meeting of rugged mountain ranges and vast desert steppe, where summer temperatures reach 40°C and winters plunge to -35°C. It is one of the most important refugia for snow leopards on Earth, hosting one of the highest densities in Mongolia, alongside ibex, argali, goitered gazelle, and the Asiatic wild ass. A community-based monitoring programme launched in 2008 represents one of the most sustained long-term studies of snow leopards anywhere. The reserve also contains over 200 archaeological sites including Copper Age rock paintings and dinosaur fossil beds.

Paraguay: Sur del Alto Paraná

Nestled within the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest, one of the most threatened ecosystems in the Western Hemisphere, the Sur del Alto Paraná reserve protects critical remnants of a forest reduced by large-scale soy and maize production to just 9% of its original extent. The jaguar, tapir, and endemic swift species survive here, and its core areas connect ecological corridors linking Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. Mbya Guaraní communities maintain deep spiritual and practical relationships with the forest, while the biosphere reserve framework works to promote agroecological practices and native species reforestation.

Philippines: Matibay na Bayan ng Sablayan

The largest municipality in the Philippines by land area, Sablayan stretches from mountain forests above 2,200 metres to the coral reefs of Apo Reef Natural Park, the largest contiguous reef system in the country. Its upland forests shelter the tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis), a critically endangered dwarf buffalo found nowhere else in the world, with an estimated population of 465 to 493 individuals, the majority living within this reserve. The Alangan and Taubuid Mangyan peoples hold ancestral knowledge of the landscape inseparable from its conservation, and tourism to the area surged from 34,000 visitors in 2022 to over 153,000 in 2024.

Portugal: Serra da Estrela

Rising to 1,993 metres, the highest point on the Portuguese mainland, Serra da Estrela is a landscape of granite formations, glacial valleys, and high-altitude peat bogs formed some 30,000 years ago. Already recognised as a UNESCO Global Geopark, the new biosphere designation gives the territory a second UNESCO layer and an integrated governance framework. The reserve shelters over 3,000 species including 26 endemic to mainland Portugal. Centuries of transhumant pastoralism have shaped the landscape, and the traditional products tied to that heritage, Serra da Estrela cheese, burel wool fabric, and wine, are being revitalised as the area confronts depopulation and a changing climate.

Timor-Leste: Nino Konis Santana

Timor-Leste’s first biosphere reserve sits at the eastern tip of Timor Island at the intersection of two global biodiversity hotspots: Wallacea and the Coral Triangle. The reserve holds the country’s largest remaining primary forest and coral reefs sheltering some 500 fish species. Lake Iralalaro is the most significant freshwater site in Timor-Leste and the wider Nusa Tenggara region, supporting 50 waterbird species. Among the reserve’s remarkable findings: the snake-necked turtle, believed locally extinct, was rediscovered here, and four bat species may be new to science. Named after a commander of Timor-Leste’s independence struggle, the reserve carries historical as well as ecological significance.

Viet Nam: Phong Nha-Ke Bang

Home to the oldest and largest karst formation in Asia, the Phong Nha-Ke Bang Biosphere Reserve spans 515,830 hectares of limestone mountains, ancient cave systems, and pristine tropical forests in central Viet Nam. In 2025, together with Hin Nam No National Park in Lao PDR, it became the first transboundary UNESCO World Natural Heritage site in Southeast Asia. Its forests support 2,954 vascular plant species including 172 endemic to Viet Nam, and 1,399 animal species. The Bru-Van Kieu and Chut peoples maintain living traditions of forest use and ceremony, now intertwined with a growing ecotourism economy that has transformed livelihoods since World Heritage inscription in 2003.

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Expansions to Existing Reserves

The 2026 session also approved extensions to five existing biosphere reserves. In China, the Hanma reserve was extended and renamed Hanma-Huzhong, incorporating a neighbouring reserve to strengthen one of China’s last pristine cold-temperate coniferous forests. In Italy, the Po Grande reserve was extended along the full length of the Po River corridor, consolidating its role as a model for integrated river basin management across 102 municipalities. In Spain, three reserves received expansions: La Siberia, Sierra de las Nieves, and Sierra Nevada, which grew by nearly 30%.

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Reporting on the Environment

Alongside the biosphere designations, UNESCO and the OSCE launched a new practical guide called “Reporting the Environment: A Practical Manual for Journalists,” produced with contributions from Covering Climate Now, the Pulitzer Center, the Reuters Institute, and other leading journalism organisations. At a time when misinformation increasingly shapes public understanding of environmental issues, the manual offers tools for covering climate and nature stories accurately and safely, from navigating AI-generated content to investigating environmental accountability.

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Learn more about UNESCO biosphere reserves at www.unesco.org. Photos and descriptions of all new sites are available through the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme.

Photos: Courtesy of UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme and the national authorities of the designated reserves. SEVENSEAS Media thanks UNESCO for sharing.