Biosphere Reserve
Non-statutory UNESCO designation for a wider landscape
A Biosphere Reserve is an international designation under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme. It covers a wider landscape where conservation and local livelihoods are managed together. The designation is non-statutory and creates no planning control of its own. UNESCO designates them; England, Wales and Scotland have biospheres, and Northern Ireland has none.
What This Means
The Biosphere label grants no power over this property. No Biosphere consent exists, so repairs, redecoration and extensions are unaffected by it. What can affect you is whatever statutory designation lies underneath the same area. A Site of Special Scientific Interest, a conservation area or a landscape designation each carries real controls. The practical question for this plot is therefore which of those apply, not the Biosphere status. This does not normally affect mortgage approval, buildings insurance or resale.
Practical Advice
- Ask your conveyancer's environmental search to list every statutory designation that touches this title.
- Ask the local planning authority whether a conservation area, landscape designation or nature designation covers this plot.
- Keep the designations search with your deeds as the record of what applies to this plot.
Key Points
- There are seven across the UK and Crown Dependencies: North Devon, the Isle of Wight, Brighton and Lewes Downs, the Dyfi, Galloway and Southern Ayrshire, Wester Ross, and the Isle of Man.
- UNESCO reviews each biosphere every ten years, and a site that no longer meets the criteria can be withdrawn.
Additional Information
Each biosphere is zoned into a core area, a buffer zone and a transition area. The core is the strictly protected land, usually already a nature reserve or a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Homes and settlements sit mainly in the transition area.