The UNESCO Category II Centre for Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves was approved by the UNESCO General Assembly in 2013 and inaugurated by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova in 2014. This centre is based on an agreement signed by UNESCO and an International Agreement signed by UNESCO and Spain that has been renewed in 2022.

This Thematic Network, the third approved worldwide, will coordinate the work carried out by the biosphere reserves of the countries bordering the Mediterranean and will tackle the current socio-environmental challenges generated by the effects of global change.

Since 2014, the headquarters of the Abertis Foundation, Castellet Castle, has been the International Centre for Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves under the auspices of UNESCO, and a pioneering model of public-private collaboration within the scope of UNESCO's MAB Programme. The centre promotes an ambitious programme to develop scientific and dissemination activities linked to the network coordinated by the Centre for Forest Science and Technology of Catalonia (CTFC) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). An example of this is the achievement in 2018 of the European project, ERASMUS+ Edubiomed, endowed with more than one million euros to finance academic and training activities in the participating biosphere reserves.

This network, which currently includes 74 biosphere reserves in 17 Mediterranean countries, joins the two existing UNESCO thematic networks based in Spain: World Network of Island and Coastal Biosphere Reserves (with a technical secretariat in the Menorca Biosphere Reserve and another in the Jeju Island Biosphere Reserve in the Republic of Korea) and the World Network of Mountain Biosphere Reserves (with a technical secretariat in the Omaña and Luna Valleys Biosphere Reserve and another in the Research Centre for Eco-environmental Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences). In addition, since 1997, Spain has acted as the Secretariat of the Network of National MaB Committees and Biosphere Reserves of Ibero-America and the Caribbean (IberoMaB) by designation of the components of this regional network.

All of the above shows Spain's interest in supporting UNESCO's thematic and regional networks.

More information:

https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/prensa/ultimas-noticias/la-unesco-oficializa-la-red-de-reservas-de-la-biosfera-mediterr%C3%A1neas-con-sede-en-espa%C3%B1a/tcm:30-589845

https://www.lavanguardia.com/sociedad/20230616/9046699/unesco-oficializa-red-tematica-reservas-biosfera-mediterraneas-sede-espana.html

https://www.ecoticias.com/naturaleza/espana-sede-de-la-red-de-reservas-de-la-biosfera-mediterraneas