Summary: | Wednesday, July 6, 2005 Writers: Laurie Anderson, 706/542-3379, laurie@uga.edu Christopher Anderson, 706/542-4366, cba@uga.edu Contacts: Christopher Anderson, 706/542-4366, cba@uga.edu Steven Elliott-Gower, 706/542-6206, segower@uga.edu UGA Fulbright Scholars help bring UNESCO designation to Chile’s Cape Horn Athens, Ga. – Thanks in part to the efforts of University of Georgia Fulbright students Christopher Anderson and Juan Harcha, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated Chile’s Cape Horn area as a World Biosphere Reserve. The reserve is located at the southern tip of Chile and includes the marine areas and islands that make up the Cape Horn Archipelago. This is the first biosphere reserve declared in Chile since 1984 and the first ever that includes marine and human-populated areas. It joins a world-wide network of sites in which local communities are actively involved in environmental conservation. “Classifying an area as a biosphere reserve is an excellent method of land-use planning that promotes sustainable development and conveys international prestige upon the area, while at the same time seeking out and integrating collaboration with the local population,†said Anderson. “The UNESCO recognition highlights the area’s importance for world biological and cultural heritage,†he added, “and provides a framework for administration that helps to ensure both sustainable and equitable development for the area’s residents as well as natural resource conservation.†Anderson is a student in UGA’s Institute of Ecology, currently completing his doctoral dissertation about the effects of introduced beavers on stream ecosystems in Cape Horn. He has worked in Chile since 1999 and was a Fulbright Scholar and National Security Education Program Boren Fellow to Chile in 2003. Harcha is a Chilean Fulbright Scholar currently studying international law with emphasis on the Antarctic Treaty at the Dean Rusk Center - International, Comparative and ...
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