The MAB International Coordination Council will be held in Abuja (Nigeria), from September 13 to 17, and among the contents of the agenda are the review of the progress of the program, to define priorities and coordinate international cooperation in favor of biodiversity.

This event takes place a few days after the World Congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature revealed that more than 8,500 species were in danger of extinction, shedding new light on the global biodiversity crisis.

The annual MAB Council meeting, which for the first time will be held in Africa, was inaugurated by the Director General of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, and the country’s Minister of the Environment, Sharon Ikeazor.

The meeting will also designate new biosphere reserves and approve their status reports, of which there are currently 714 in 129 countries around the world.

For more than 50 years, Unesco has been developing concrete solutions to environmental challenges through the MAB program and its network of protected sites covering nearly 6 percent of the planet.

pgh/abo/mem/acm