INTERACTIVE MAP

The Isle of Wight UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve is a huge designation covering the whole of the Island’s land surface (380 km²) and all of its inshore waters, including most of the Solent (535 km²). The reserve reaches three counties, the Isle of Wight, Hampshire and Dorset.

Explore the Isle of Wight UNESCO Biosphere Reserve with this interactive map.

Click the legend icon in the top left corner of the map screen to access the map legend, you can then access all zone layers. This map is a work in progress. If there is a point you would like to add to the map, please let us know via the contact page.

Biosphere Reserve Zones

Biosphere Reserves have three zones as defined by UNESCO.

The Core areas are the highest levels of environmental protection, where restrictions on human activity are greatest. On the Island these comprise the inshore marine protected areas, coastal and estuarine designations and inland European sites and SSSIs.

The Buffer zones help to protect the core areas and are characterised by a less direct constraint on human interaction with the natural environment. Here these are the wider Solent and South Wight marine protected areas and the AONB and Heritage Coast.

The Transition zones incorporate all of the main centres of human population and infrastructure as well as more intensively farmed rural areas.

The interplay between these constituent parts, and the search for new and better ways to create sustainable and positive futures for the communities of people and wildlife that inhabit and cross between them, is the heart of the Biosphere project.

For a map of the Isle of Wight zones see our Resources page.