2018-08-07 Planning & Environment Committee Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                                    7 AUGUST 2018



REPORTS FOR NOTING BY THE COMMITTEE
3                        NOOSA BIOSPHERE RESERVE - 10 YEAR PERIODIC REVIEW
DOCUMENT INFORM AT ION




Author                           Executive Officer, Narelle Reid
                                 CEO’s Office

Index                            ECM/ Subject / Noosa Biosphere Reserve / 10 Year Periodic Review

Attachments                      1.   Noosa Biosphere Reserve – 10 Year Periodic Review Report
                                      (Note: 99pg attachment provided separately to this report)



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Not applicable.

RECOMMENDATION
That Council note the report by the Executive Officer to the Planning & Environment Committee
Meeting dated 7 August 2018 regarding the ‘Noosa Biosphere Reserve - 10 Year Periodic
Review Report’ (provided at Attachment 1 to the report) to be lodged with UNESCO.


REPORT
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) statutory
framework for the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) makes provision under Article
9 that “the status of each biosphere reserve should be subject to a periodic review every ten
years, based on a report prepared by the concerned authority, on the basis of the criteria of
Article 4, and forwarded to the secretariat by the State concerned. The report will be considered
by the Advisory Committee for Biosphere Reserves for recommendation to International Co-
ordinating Council.”

Noosa Biosphere Reserve (NBR) was designated on 18 September 2007. The absolute deadline
for the report to be lodged with UNESCO is 30 September 2018 (an extension of time was given
by UNESCO).

The intent of the review is to assess the functioning, zoning, and scale of the biosphere reserve
as well as the involvement of the populations living in the site. UNESCO is primarily interested in
the significant changes that have occurred over the previous 10 years. They provide a prescribed
template for the report format framed around the Article 4 criteria. It is largely a technical and
administrative exercise in updating information provided as part of the original nomination
process as evidence that the designation should continue.

The report can only be lodged with UNESCO by the Commonwealth Government through the
Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT) after review by:
 The State & Commonwealth departments responsible for the environment; and
 Professor Peter Bridgewater, Chair of the Man and Biosphere (MaB) Working Group
   Australia.

The Periodic Review must be lodged with DFAT by 15 August to enable it to make the lodgement
deadline of 30 September 2018.


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