Roztocze Biosphere Reserve (Poland). Located in southeast Poland next to the Ukrainian border, the 297,000 hectare site forms a transboundary Biosphere Reserve with Ukraine’s Roztochya Biosphere Reserve. A scenic region of great natural and cultural value, it is also an important ecological corridor encompassing loess areas, a range of limestone hills covered by forests and ribbon fields, with deep river valleys and deposits of mineral waters and fossil wood. Visited by some 600,000 tourists every year, the site is home to approximately 160,000 residents whose livelihood chiefly depends on agriculture, forestry and tourism. However, unfavourable farming conditions, notably the fragmentation of farms, have stood in the way of modernization and let to a high level of emigration by young people. Development plans for the biosphere reserve seek to reverse this trend and allow the region to draw great benefits from its natural beauty and cultural heritage.
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