Slovak Committee for the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme is an advisory body to the Slovak UNESCO Commission. Slovak UNESCO Commission is integrated in the Ministry of the Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic and chaired by the Minister.
In 2016, the Slovak UNESCO Commission was restructured, the Slovak MAB Committee underwent the similar process. In restructuring, the main effort was made to ensure representation of different stakeholders groups, including the local and national level authorities in the Committee. Currently, there are representatives of the Ministry of the Environment, State Nature Conservancy, scientific and academic sector in the Committee. Biosphere Reserve managers and representatives of the BR coordination boards are represented ex-offo in the Committee. The administrative and representation activities of the Committee are funded by the Ministry of the Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic and by the Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic.
The main milestones of Slovak MAB Committee:
- Nominations of Slovak BR: Slovak Karst (1977), Poľana (1990), Tatras (1992) and Eastern Carpathians (1998)
- In 1993 SV MAB was represented at the EUROMAB meeting – Zakopane, Poland, in the case of years SK MAB was able to participate in the EUROMAB meeting
- In 1994, the publication “Biosphere Reserves at the Crossroads of Central Europe” was published.
- SV MAB processed data for publication for other BR – Slovak Karst, Poľana, Tatras, Eastern Carpathians
- Start organizing the Open Days expected in all BR in Slovakia – shopping for the inhabitants of the country and their groups with participation in the journalistic country
- Draft action plan for the BR of the Slovak Republic
- Organization of international scientific conferences (IX)
- Calculation of periodic data from the territory
- Publication of publications, brochures (1998: The role of UNESCO MAB biosphere reserves in supplementing the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2005: Poľana Biosphere Responsibility after Fifteen Years, 2009:
- EUROMAB 2009, “Learning Together”, Biosphere Reserves in the Slovak Republic “, 2009: Biosphere Reserves in Slovakia)
- Participation of SV MAB in international projects
- In 2008, a representative was appointed to the ICC – the presidency during the GC
- In 2018, SV MAB became advisors in expert groups: Technical guarantees for the UNESCO BR and the ad hoc group for the UNESCO BR
The current activity of the Slovak MAB Committee can carry out the process of fulfilling the vision of the direction of biosphere reserves:
1. Provide support to the BR by the Government of the Slovak Republic
2. Securing funds before disbursement in BR
3. Promotion of the territory
4. Education and training
5. Research and monitoring
6. Participatory and transparent management of BR
7. Public-private partnerships
8. Nature-friendly farming
9. International network of regime forests
10. National and international cooperation
During their activities, the members of SV MAB received significant international awards:
2007
Ing. Július Oszlányi, CSc. – chairperson and scientist of Slovak Academy of Sciences has in the past won the Prince of Asturias Award (2001) for scientific work in UNESCO biosphere reserves, the Sultan Qaboos Award (2007), and the SAS Honorary Plaque for Merits in Biological Development (2004))
2017
A positive example of management and cooperation is the Poľana Biosphere Reserve. In 2017 Poľana BR manager Ing. Vladimíra Fabriciusová PhD., currently the chairperson of Slovak MAB Committee, won the Michel Batis Award for the best BR management in the world.
