In 1983, UNESCO and UNEP jointly convened the First International Biosphere Reserve Congress in Minsk (Balarus) in cooperation with FAO and IUCN (UNESCO, 1995). The Congress' activities gave rise in 1984 to an Action Plan for Biosphere Reserves, which was formally endorsed by the UNESCO General Conference and by the Governing Council of UNEP. While much of this Action Plan remains valid today, the context in which biosphere reserves operate has changed considerably, as was shown by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) process and, in particular, the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Convention was signed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, entered into force in December 1993, and has now been ratified by more than 100 countries.
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