On December 16 and 17, 2021, Dr. Antoni Mas-Ponce, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Geography of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and technician of the Besòs Tordera Consortium, participated in the conference MAB-IHP Regional Symposium Managing Water Resources in Biosphere Reserves in South East and the Mediterranean, organized by the UNESCO Regional Office in Venice. 

From a holistic and multidisciplinary perspective, UNESCO through the MAB (Man and the Biosphere Program) and IHP (Intergovernmental Hydrological Program) is designing, with the Biosphere Reserves as the main axis, actions related to research and science to comply with the goals of the 2030 Agenda. 

In this sense, the main objective of the conference was to contribute to a sustainable water resources management model in the Biosphere Reserves of Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean area. The different case studies, projects and solutions presented during the session will allow UNESCO, together with the network of Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves, to promote solutions and projects related to water resources in these territories. 

The conference was attended by about thirty experts, including members and representatives of the MAB and IHP programs, coordinators and experts in water resources who work in and for the Biosphere Reserves, as well as other members of the UNESCO and MAB networks such as national and municipal authorities, researchers and regional organizations related to water resources, among others. 

Dr. Mas-Ponce, as a researcher linked to the UNESCO International Center for Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves, presented the strategic lines of the Center and its main research projects in the field, in addition to the main results of his recent PhD thesis entitled Assessing the effects of Global Change on Mediterranean river basins, which has the Montseny Biosphere Reserve (NE, Catalonia) as its main area of study. 

Finally, the expected results obtained from this conference will be aimed to expand the exchange of knowledge regarding the river systems of this region, explore how the MAB and IHP programs can be applied in the different case studies presented and, above all , strengthen the relations between UNESCO regional networks, including the Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves Network promoted by the Abertis Foundation based in the Castellet Castle, and other relevant actors, especially those working in Biosphere Reserves.