BREMi-A New Tool for the Evaluation of UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Management Effectiveness: Case-study in the Arab Man and Biosphere (ArabMAB) Regional Network.

Scholars and practitioners have been striving to develop straightforward and effective tools to measure protected area management effectiveness (PAME). UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BR), with their unique functional and zonation schemes are monitored according to their compulsory 10-year Periodic Review (PR), which is useful for UNESCO's evaluation purposes but lacks comprehensiveness and utility for adaptive management. Based on existing PAME methodologies, we develop and propose the first quantitative tool for the evaluation of BR management effectiveness, that would enhance and complement the currently used qualitative PR report, and serve the rapid evaluation needed for BR managers to monitor, evaluate, and adapt their management approach to achieve the three functions of BRs.

Application of modified threat reduction assessments in Lebanon.

Worldwide efforts have concentrated on developing monitoring methods that would enhance the assessment of progress toward achieving the 2010 conservation objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Threat reduction assessment is one such method. It provides an indirect measure of the effects of a conservation project by evaluating changes in human-induced direct threats to protected areas.