Brighton aims to become United Nations 'biosphere reserve'

Graham Tibbetts
Last Updated: 2:01pm BST 06/10/2008

Brighton is launching a campaign to become the first city in the world to be recognised by the United Nations as a "biosphere reserve".

Brighton will compete with Rome, Seoul, Stockholm and Cape Town for recognition as a UN 'biosphere reserve'
The accolade is awarded by Unesco to areas which "innovate and demonstrate approaches to conservation and sustainable development".
If the seaside resort were successful it would join renowned conservation sites such as the central Amazon rainforests, Mojave desert and Cape Winelands in South Africa.
Brighton & Hove city council will launch its application later this month, highlighting its network of nature reserves on the edges of the South Downs, burgeoning local food production and low carbon housing schemes.
Denise Cobb, deputy leader, said: "Since 2007, over half the world's populations have lived in cities, so making cities less environmentally harmful - or even beneficial - is one of our most pressing needs."

She wants Brighton to "lead the way on sustainable cities and hopefully make us the UK's first urban biosphere reserve".
The city is vying with Rome, Seoul, Stockholm and Cape Town.
Unesco has begun accepting bids from cities for biosphere reserve status to try to "update the image of cities as hotbeds of pollution, stress, poverty and crime".
The Paris-based organisation has said that ecology and urban life should interweave seamlessly.
It says nature reserves are important and calls for buildings with green roofs and "green walls" hung with plants to encourage wildlife, as well as clean waterways and a commitment to low-carbon housing.
Among Brighton's nature reserves are a community apple orchard at Stanmer Park and it also boasts acres of allotments and an earthship - a low carbon demonstration home with old car tyres for walls.
An apartment complex being built in the centre, One Brighton, will have allotments on the roof and will be powered by renewable energy.
Shops include Vegetarian Shoes and Arka, which offers eco-friendly funerals.
However, critics believe Brighton's traffic congestion and its residents' large carbon footprint - the fourth worst of 60 British cities, according to WWF - make it an unsuitable candidate.
Keith Taylor, convenor of the local Green party which has 12 councillors, said: "The aspiration to become the UK's first urban biosphere city is fantastic.
"But we have a history in this city of chasing titles. I wonder whether we actually need to be called an urban biosphere city when actually what's really wanted is action?"
Bryn Thomas, who runs the Brighton Permaculture Trust, which looks after the orchards at Stanmer, said: "The carbon footprint of Brighton and Hove is one of the highest in the country, quite simply because it is an affluent region.
"There's higher car ownership, more international air travel, people are more likely to buy beans flown in from Kenya in Brighton and Hove than in the valleys of Wales, where carbon footprints are smaller."
The World Network of Biosphere Reserves encompasses 531 sites in 105 countries.
Mount Olympus and north-east Greenland are among the locations, while in Britain the sites include the North Norfolk Coast and Beinn Eighe in Ross-shire, Scotland.