The selection of large areas for landscape and nature conservation (e.g. biosphere reserves) necessitates a new form of relationship between planners and those affected by the planning. Modern top-down procedures used by authorities and planning organisations must be made transparent and intelligible. Only then will it be possible to support regional bottom-up efforts effectively. WSL is keen to support an open planning culture. Drawing on a considerable amount of landscape-ecological, biological and socio-economic data, we have developed a prototypical evaluation instrument on the www to help evaluate potential biosphere reserves. Being on the Internet ensures transparency and information flow! 106 regions in Switzerland have been evaluated as comprehensively as possible. Users can check whether their region would, in comparison with other regions in Switzerland, make a suitable biosphere reserve. They can call up existing selections or institute a search for potential biosphere reserve regions according to criteria they have chosen themselves. This is WSL's contribution to objectifying the selection of large areas for landscape and nature conservation. We are well aware that many other criteria, such as the cooperation of the local population, local public awareness or the region's cultural values, may and should influence such an evaluation. This kind of data is, however, generally not available on a national scale. Nevertheless, it would be well worth collecting information about these criteria so as to take them into account in a future evaluation instrument.
