The Chinese National Committee of Man and Biosphere (MAB) Program on Sunday awarded prizes to four foreigners and one Chinese for their contributions to the country's biological diversity protection.

This is the first prize of its kind granted by the think tank affiliated to the Chinese Academy of Sciences since its establishment in 1978.

The winners are Natarajan Ishwaran, visiting professor with the International Center on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage under the auspices of UNESCO, Thomas Schaaf, former director of the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences of UNESCO, Neronov Valery Mikhailovich, deputy chair of the Russian MAB Committee, Chung-II Choi, former chair of the UNESCO/MAB Program International Coordinating Council, and Li Wenhua, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and International Academy of Sciences.

At the awarding ceremony in Changbaishan Nature Reserve in northeast China's Jilin Province, the committee chairman Xu Zhihong said that the winners have given persistent and excellent support to facilitate the development of the MAB program in China as well as the biosphere protection network in East Asia.

A member of the UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves, the committee specializes in the research of priority issues essential to the relationship between human and environment, gives policy advices to the government and facilitates the implementation of government policies.

Xu said Dr. Ishwaran have helped facilitate the development of biosphere region network in China.

Initiated in 1993, the China Biosphere Region Network has now included 136 member biosphere regions and specializes in the capacity-building, knowledge-sharing and public education on biosphere protection.

With the support of Dr. Schaaf, the Changbaishan Biosphere Reserves joined the Global Change in Mountain Regions, a project jointly funded by European Union and UNESCO, and the following research program Global and Climate Change in Mountain Sites, Xu said.

Xu also gave kudos to Dr. Mikhailovich who helped develop an UNDP project on the feasibility study on the Lower Tumen river area transboundary biosphere reserve which includes the protected areas of China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Russia.

Xu said Chung-II Choi had been actively involved in the development of the East Asia Biosphere Reserve Network and made contribution to the cooperation between the MAB Chinese Committee and the MAB National Committee of the Republic of Korea.

Li Wenhua, the Chinese winner who is the vice president of the Chinese MAB National Committee, said that the development of the Chinese MAB program has been closely related with the input of foreign experts and international exchanges.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed by the Russian and Chinese MAB committees on Sunday, the two will improve biosphere reserve management through the exchanges of experts, managers and conservation technologies, initiate projects on the conservation and restoration of the number of rare and endangered species in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature as well as in both countries.

Xu said the new memorandum will mainly focus on the protection of Siberian tigers.

"Although we have achieved some progress in protecting Siberian tigers, the species remain in a critical situation. A sharp decline of its number will affect the entire ecological chains," said Xu. (Xinhua)