The most important strategy for the conservation of biodiversity together with traditional human…

Answer: (a) biosphere reserves

Biosphere reserves are the protected-area model designed to conserve ecosystems and biodiversity while keeping local people and their traditional ways of life within the landscape. National parks and wildlife sanctuaries focus on wildlife and habitat with restrictions on human use. Botanical gardens are ex situ collections.

• ✓ (a) Biosphere reserves are representative ecosystems recognised under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme. Each has a strictly protected core area. Around it lie a buffer zone and a transition zone, where sustainable use and human settlements, including the traditional life of local communities, continue. MAB aims at improving human livelihoods while safeguarding natural and managed ecosystems.
• ✗ (b) Botanical gardens are ex situ sites that keep plant species outside their natural habitat. They do not conserve whole ecosystems or traditional human life.
• ✗ (c) National parks are set aside mainly for wildlife and habitat protection, with strong restrictions on human use. They are not designed to sustain traditional life.
• ✗ (d) Wildlife sanctuaries protect fauna and their habitat and permit only limited, regulated human activity. They are not a model for integrating biodiversity with traditional life.

Remember · Biosphere reserves (UNESCO MAB Programme) have core, buffer and transition zones. They combine conservation with human livelihoods and the traditional life of local communities, whereas national parks and sanctuaries are species- and habitat-centred.

📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 11 India: Physical Environment, Ch 5 (practise this chapter)

Question: UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) 2014, General Studies paper. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 25 Oct 2026 (how we verify). · Report an error