Ordino secures UNESCO biosphere reserve status to steer sustainable growth

“A biosphere reserve is any territory that, voluntarily — and that must be emphasised — has decided to strengthen its socioeconomic commitment to conserving its natural resources by joining a programme promoted by UNESCO for the last 50 years.” With those words, Marc Font, head of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Sustainability of the Ordino council, explained what it means to be a biosphere reserve, stressing the participatory processes and the need for consensus across the territory’s social levels.

“Basically, it reaffirms that Ordino wants to continue growing in a sustained way,” Font added. The candidacy process began in 2019, led by Marc Pons, who was then the environment councillor and part of Àngel Mortés’s team. Font said he was invited to help prepare the bid because of his training as a forest engineer and his experience in natural parks.

The team developed a ten‑year action plan to be rolled out gradually, based on open participatory processes that brought together all local groups and the wider public. The plan reflected a desire to preserve the parish’s essence: “a naturalised parish, where development is possible, but in a bounded and orderly way.”

The candidacy was submitted in October 2020 to the Andorran national commission for UNESCO (CNAU) and was approved “without any amendments,” Font noted, during the 32nd session of the International Co‑ordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MaB) programme. Ordino subsequently joined several working networks, including the European reserves network and the revived mountain reserves network, in which it has been particularly active since 2022.

Activities under the reserve have included technical exchanges with Austria to deepen management of the natural park, develop ecotourism and improve outreach. One significant milestone was the World Meeting of Mountain Reserves held in Ordino in 2024, which brought together representatives from 45 countries. The event, Font said, was a major undertaking that helped raise Ordino’s profile and highlighted Pyrenean culture, while producing a roadmap for the network.

At the local level, the council has introduced a label for businesses — “Company committed to the Ordino Biosphere Reserve” — to add value to products made in Ordino that align with the reserve’s objectives. Font said the current challenge is to get the broader public actively involved in the reserve’s daily life and to mobilise citizens around issues that affect it.