An Analytical Survey of the Adaptation of Biosphere Reserve Zoning with the Zoning of Protected Areas in Iran

The conservation category as man and biosphere seeks to bridge the multifaceted needs of conservation and sustainable use of nature. Zoning of the biosphere reserves is planned and managed by establishing three zones of core, buffer, and transition.  Because of the fauna, flora and indigenous diversity, and its rich culture, Iran is an important environment to implement this vision of this conservation category as man and biosphere and has so far registered 13 biosphere reserves. However, Iran's biosphere reserves have not been successful in achieving the goals of the MaB program, largely due to their national protected areas and applying the existing 11-zoning guidelines. This study describes the goals, structure, and challenges of biosphere reserves in the world and Iran, emphasizes the need for the triple zoning based on a participatory approach in the country. One of the important and applied achievements of this research is to achieve the compliance pattern of eleven zoning of national protected areas with the triple zoning pattern of biosphere reserves. Based on the findings of this study, in order to adapt the zoning of biosphere reserves to all national protection titles, it is necessary to separate the transition zone into two parts internal and external. Also zones 1 and 2 of the national zones will be always considered as core zone in the biosphere reserve. The buffer zone is capable of adapting to all 11 zones except zones 1,2 and 9. The internal transition zone, except zone 1 and 2, is adaptable to other zones. In contrast the external transition zone can only be adapted to zone 9 of national conservation categories.