The Long Point area, comprising 26,250 hectares, was designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in April, 1986, the third to be named in Canada and one of 15 biosphere reserves found in this country today. It provides an example of the Great Lakes coastal ecosystem and a unique blend of habitats – long uninterrupted beaches, undisturbed sand dunes, grassy ridges, wet meadows, woodlands, marshes and ponds, coldwater streams, and the shallow Inner Bay. Its delicate dunes and marshes teem with songbirds, spawning fish, turtles and frogs.

Long Point is a world-renowned refuge and stopover for migrating birds in fall and spring, and waterfowl viewing is excellent in March and April. In August and September tens of thousands of Monarch Butterflies congregate on Long Point, briefly resting before continuing on their way to their Mexican wintering grounds.

• Download a printable map of the Long Point biosphere

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Biosphere Reserves are areas of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems promoting solutions to reconcile the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use. They remain under sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located. Biosphere reserves serve in some ways as “living laboratories” for testing out and demonstrating integrated management of land, water and biodiversity. Each biosphere reserve is intended to fulfill three basic functions, which are complementary and mutually reinforcing:

• A conservation function – to contribute to the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic variation;
• A development function – to foster economic and human development which is socio-culturally and ecologically sustainable;
• A logistic function – to provide support for research, monitoring, education and information exchange related to local, national and global issues of conservation and development.

Biosphere Reserves are not covered by an international convention but must simply meet a set of criteria allowing them to fulfill properly their three functions. Collectively, biosphere reserves form a World Network. Within this network, exchanges of information, experience and personnel are promoted. 

Biosphere Reserves are designed to meet one of the most challenging issues that the World is facing today: How can we conserve the diversity of plants, animals and micro-organisms which make up our living “biosphere” and maintain healthy natural systems while, at the same time, meet the material needs and aspirations of an increasing number of people? How can we reconcile conservation of natural resources with their sustainable use? Biosphere reserves have been designed as tools for reconciling and integrating the conflicting interests and pressures that characterize land-use planning today.

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