UNESCO biosphere reserves are increasingly recognised world-wide as an alternative, realistic, effective way to achieve conservation goals in environments that are being impacted by humans more and more. I say increasingly, because, in the past five years, more biosphere reserves have been added than in the previous decade--using the EuroMab region (Russia, Europe, Canada and the USA) as an example (Table 1). Many biosphere reserves were added in the early years of the program (late ...