Since 1971, UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme has embraced a number of principles that link the political, scientific and academic spheres.

Biosphere Reserves and Sustainable Development Goals 1 presents these areas as privileged spaces for experimenting with operating methods specific to cross-cutting objectives and issues. These areas encourage the development of interdisciplinary research, supported by a worldwide network to disseminate experience, approaches and knowhow.

The various global and local political scales are linked here, with different consequences for the reconfiguration of local political arenas, for specific modes of development linked to a renewed relationship with knowledge, powers and institutions, and for renewed relationships between the worlds of science, education and territorial governance.

Angela Barthes is a professor at the University of Aix-Marseille, France, and specializes in environmental education and rural development.

Catherine Cibien is director of the French committee of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme.

Bruno Romagny is an economist and director of research at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD - Institut de recherche pour le développement), Laboratoire populationenvironnement-développement (LPED), France.