The State Department web site below is a permanent electronic archive of information released prior to January 20, 2001.  Please see www.state.gov for material released since President George W. Bush took office on that date.  This site is not updated so external links may no longer function.  Contact us with any questions about finding information. NOTE: External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.

Biosphere Reserves in Action:
Case Studies of the American Experience

CHAMPLAIN-ADIRONDACK BIOSPHERE RESERVE Click here for MAP

The Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve (CABR) is the largest and most populous biosphere reserve in the United States and the fourth largest in the world. The biosphere reserve boundary, which encompasses federal, state, local, and private lands, delineates a large area of managed use. The zone of cooperation includes the entire U.S. portion of Lake Champlain and its associated watershed. The biosphere reserve and its outlying areas are inhabited by over 400,000 people and are within a day's drive of 60 million people living in the U.S. and Canada. CABR is a large-scale, real-world example of how people live and interact with nature.

I. AREA DESCRIPTION

The Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve covers 3,990,000 hectares in 22 counties in north central New York and northwestern Vermont with a cooperative management arrangement developing across the Canadian border. Lake Champlain, the sixth largest lake in the United States, and the Adirondack and Green Mountains are the central features of the reserve. CABR includes extensive temperate coniferous and deciduous forests characteristic of the Lake Forest biogeographic province as well as large numbers of lakes, bogs, and freshwater wetlands. Precipitation is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year with maximum precipitation occurring in the summer months. The topography is hilly to mountainous, drained through geologic faults and with numerous glaciated lakes and ponds.

Forestry and tourism are the economic base in the Adirondack region and the New York side of Lake Champlain. The more diverse economy on the Vermont side of the lake is based on forestry, farming, tourism, light manufacturing, and production of specialty agricultural products.

II. MAJOR ISSUES

The primary issue facing the regional land managers is to build public interest and support for a biosphere reserve (BR) program that advocates a citizen/government partnership for resource conservation and development. The very large size and diversity of the BR favor a phased introduction of a BR program rather than a CABR-wide approach from the outset. As a first step, New York proposes to establish an independent, non-profit organization to represent the Adirondack portion of the BR. Vermont is organizing a local grass roots initiative rather than trying to inaugurate a formal BR program at this time.

The primary goal of the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve is to establish a non-regulatory, non-advocacy program that uses education, research, and demonstration projects to encourage social and economic vitality and to preserve and improve the environmental health in the region. Other goals include:

* Find practical and environmentally sound solutions to problems of conflicting uses.
* Facilitate regional, interstate, and international cooperation in the areas of environmental education, scientific data exchange, and development of regional policies to address natural resource, social and economic development issues.
* Serve as a model of how a coordinated public/private effort at the regional scale can help protect biological diversity and promote sustained economic development.
* Build public awareness, understanding, and support of the relationship between preservation and protection of the unique, diverse, and special natural resources within the reserve and the sustained economic growth and vitality of this region.

III. BACKGROUND

The core areas of the BR include New York's 2.4 million hectare Adirondack Park, 3,704 hectares in Vermont's Camel's Hump and Mount Mansfield State Natural Areas, and 7,462 hectares within the Green Mountain National Forest. The Adirondack Park includes the largest designated complex of wilderness areas in the eastern United States.

IV. IMPLEMENTATION

The Champlain-Adirondack region was designated a BR in 1989. The Steering Committee, represented by the land managers in the BR area, convened to prepare the BR nomination and consider alternative organizational structures. The initial proposal was to establish an independent, non-profit organization with two operational arms, one for the Champlain region and one for the Adirondacks. The organization was to be managed by private sector entities, with government agencies playing a support role. Preliminary plans were made to hold a conference to help set work priorities. Funding for the program was proposed to come from the fund-raising activities of the non-profit organization. This proposal has not yet been fully implemented.

Proponents of a BR program are attempting to build public confidence through existing institutional frameworks, cooperative agreements, and programs in CABR. An ongoing public and private cooperative effort to deliver educational and interpretive programs in the region is manifest in a state funded Adirondack Park Visitor Interpretive Center Program. Operating from two facilities, it offers the public an opportunity to understand, enjoy, protect, and promote the park and to stimulate people to develop a sense of balance between use and protection of this special resource.

Cornell University, the Adirondack Park Agency, and the Rocky Mountain Institute are proposing a Rural Economic Renewal training project, which would complement a BR program. The objective of the demonstration project is to train community leaders to recognize opportunities to build community resources through sustainable development.

V. BENEFITS, CONSTRAINTS, OPPORTUNITIES

CABR designation helped persuade the U.S. Congress to pass the Lake Champlain Special Designation Act in 1990. The act established the Lake Champlain Basin Program, charged with developing a comprehensive pollution prevention, control, and restoration plan for the lake. The Basin Program has required a large resource commitment from the local population, eclipsing efforts to organize other activities leading to a BR program. The Basin Program has achieved many of the goals that CABR would have attempted. Its successes include bi-state cooperative regulatory review, establishment of uniform in-lake water quality standards, and coordination of an emergency response protocol. The program has also reached new levels of cooperation in regional research with the establishment of the Lake Champlain Research Consortium and has initiated an integrated education and training program for teachers throughout the basin. The Basin Program has received an average of $2.7 million in federal assistance a year for the last three years.

Another regional effort is also overshadowing CABR initiatives at this time. The Northern Forest Lands Project, begun in 1988 with U.S. Department of Agriculture funding, is an attempt by the states of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine to identify risks to 26 million acres of productive forest land and to develop protection strategies to ensure continuity of this regional resource. These and other projects will be building blocks for the BR program.

One of the major hurdles BR proponents in each state have to overcome is lack of sufficient funding for a BR program. With other major regional programs well funded, the BR program will have little credibility unless it too is funded.

New York and Vermont have decided to organize separate BR programs. This decision is probably a wise one, as each state has different challenges to meet in developing public understanding and acceptance of a BR program. As the separate BR programs begin to emerge, planning for a comprehensive CABR program can be renewed.

VI. OBSERVATIONS

Political and cultural differences between the two states contribute to the difficulties in developing a single, comprehensive BR program. The Adirondack region has a history of conflict over the role of the state in regulating local land use in the park. These conflicts intensified, about the time the BR was nominated, when the state published a proposed vision statement for the future of the park. A small and outspoken group of Adirondack residents is concerned about infringement of their property rights and believe the BR will increase government restrictions and regulations.

Initial planning of CABR involved primarily state and federal agencies and university scientists. The benefits of BR status have yet to be communicated effectively or demonstrated convincingly to the public. Some see it as a threat while others question the need for yet another "government program." Near-term progress in implementing BR concepts will require commitments by BR proponents to strengthen public education and participation in planning BR activities that meet local needs.

PRINCIPAL CONTRIBUTORS

Edward Hood, Assistant Director for Planning, Adirondack Park Agency, New York
Rose Paul, Chief of Policy and Planning, Agency of Natural Resources, Vermont

APPENDIX A: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHAMPLAIN-ADIRONDACK BIOSPHERE RESERVE

The Champlain-Adirondack area was recommended for consideration as a biosphere reserve in a U.S.-Canadian review to identify candidate biosphere reserves in the Lake Forest biogeographical province, which includes areas on both sides of the international boundary from Minnesota to the Canadian Maritime Provinces. To provide a forum for considering the recommendation, representatives of the managing agencies, universities, and non-governmental organizations formed a Steering Committee to consider BR sites, boundaries, and a process for developing a BR program. Nominations for sites in New York and Vermont were approved by the respective state governors. The land-use framework of the Adirondack Park, the existence of statewide land-use legislation in Vermont, and a remarkable history of bi-state and bi-national cooperation in the management of Lake Champlain were important considerations in the U.S. nominations of the BR, which was designated by UNESCO in 1989.

Following designation, the Steering Committee commissioned a study, with funds from U.S. MAB and other sources, to assess the feasibility of organizing a regional BR program. The preferred alternative was to establish a private, non-profit organization with two operational arms, one for the Champlain Basin, focusing on issues relevant to Lake Champlain, and the other for the Adirondack Mountains, focusing on the terrestrial resource and ecosystem management issues. The study recommended a regional conference to establish program priorities. The non-profit organization would raise funds for implementing the BR program.

The Steering Committee experienced difficulty in agreeing on a structure for planning and implementing the BR program, in part due to the significant political and cultural differences between New York and Vermont. As an alternative to a single non-profit organization to represent the entire BR, BR proponents in New York are considering a New York incorporated non-profit BR cooperative. BR proponents in Vermont are promoting grassroots CABR initiatives among businesses, organizations, and schools to build support for establishing a BR cooperative.

[end of document]

Return to Table of Contents.