The Vietnamese delegation included Vietnamese Ambassador beside UNESCO Vu Duc Tam, Deputy Head of the International Relations Department under the Ministry of Science and Technology Thai Van Tan and Permanent Secretary of the MAB Vietnam National Committee Nguyen Hoang Tri. This was the first time Vietnam attended the session as a council member.

The session agreed to elect Sweden as president of the MAB Council and Vietnam, Russia, Chile, Ethiopia and Sudan as vice president representing different groups of countries.

The coastal area in southern Kien Giang province (Vietnam) was recognised as the World’s Biosphere Reserve at the session. Thus, Vietnam has so far had five World Biosphere Reserves including Can Gio, Cat Tien, Cat Ba, Red River Delta and Kien Giang. 

At the session, delegates reviewed activities run by the MAB Council in recent times, heard  national and regional reports on the network of biosphere reserves, discussed MAB programmes in the education decade for sustainable development, UNESCO’s mid-term strategies in the 2008-2013, UNESCO budgets for 2008-2009 and MAB- related programmes.

The MAB Council, composed of 34 members is elected every four years and meets every two years to approve national and regional reports on the network of biosphere reserves, orientations for developing and managing the global biosphere reserves and to make final decisions on recognizing biosphere reserves.