54 



share is about $1.85 million. If one considers program costs only 

 ($4.5 million), the U.S. contribution would be $1.25 million per 

 year. Support for program activities from other sources is about 

 $4.25 million per year, which is of the same order of magnitude as 

 regular program costs. 



Subprograms X.6-9 are being considered together since they form the 

 core of the MAB program, which was extensively assessed on its tenth 

 anniversary in 1982. The objectives of this program are (1) the general 

 study of the structure and function of the biosphere and its ecological 

 regions to provide an improved environmental information base for 

 decision making; (2) systematic observation of changes brought about by 

 man in the biosphere in order to provide new tools for environmental 

 planning and resource management; (3) the study of the effects of these 

 changes upon human populations to improve our ability to predict these 

 effects and to develop new strategies to ameliorate the disruption of 

 human lives; and (4) education of the public and the dissemination of 

 information needed by decision makers and scientists. The initial ^4AB 

 program is divided into 14 project areas to focus research efforts and 

 facilitate coordination; half deal with particular kinds of geographic 

 areas or ecosystems, the other half with impacts and processes such as 

 conservation, demographic change, environmental perception, and pollu- 

 tion. 



U.S. scientists have played leading roles in the planning, estab- 

 lishment, and implementation of the MAB program as well as of its pre- 

 decessor, the ICSU-sponsored International Biological Program (IBP). 

 This has been at both the governmental and nongovernmental levels. 

 Since the creation of MAB, the United States has been represented on 

 the 30-member International Coordinating Council, which guides the 

 scientific content of the overall program, and has also held one of the 

 four vice-presidencies of the MAB Bureau at all times. In addition, 

 U.S. science administrators have been seconded to the UNESCO MAB 

 secretariat until 1982 when U.S. agency cutbacks made this no longer 

 feasible. There have been many hundreds of U.S. researchers actively 

 engaged in MAB sponsored activities — national, bilateral, and multi- 

 lateral projects. A small, yet effective, USMAB secretariat, currently 

 located in the OES Bureau of the State Department, facilitates U.S. 

 participation in MAB activities and serves the U.S. National Committee 

 for MAB, which is charged with guiding and overseeing U.S. interests in 

 national and international MAB projects. The U.S. Forest Service of 

 the Department of. Agriculture and the Park Service of the Department of 

 the Interior have been particularly supportive of USMAB. 



The UNESCO MAB secretariat and UNESCO as an intergovernmental 

 organization have played vital roles in coordinating and facilitating 

 the development of national projects and cooperative international 

 interactions among research groups having common interests and pro- 

 blems. Participating nations have formed national committees to 

 establish priorities and promote funding in support of projects. 

 UNESCO has been instrumental in assisting the formation of these 

 national committees and national programs as well as international 

 cooperative arrangements; there are now some 105 functioning national 

 committees. With the successful advent of integrated approaches to 



