Announcer> A production of the South Carolina Educational Television Network ♪ ♪ Mike> The old green earth, she ain't what she used to be, and concerned environmentalists are trying to help.

Tonight on Carolina Journal , we'll go to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in the Great Smoky Mountains to tell you more about the Biosphere Reserve Movement to save nature for future generations.

Also tonight, contributing editor Bob Liming tells how South Carolina is attracting tourists from Western Europe and contributing editor Steve Hamm has 10 tips on how to foil the scam man.

Good evening, I'm Mike Collins.

As the world's population increases, more and more of the planet's land space is being taken up for living space or being used for industry, mining, oil drilling, or lumbering.

There's long been a concern on the part of environmentalists that if this trend continues, the natural beauty of the earth will cease to exist.

More importantly, the fragile ecosystem which allows man to live will be permanently crippled, causing the extinction of the world as we know it and mankind itself.

In an effort to stave off this tragedy, the United Nations has set aside what they call "biosphere reserves" or wilderness areas in 62 countries.

Many of our national parks are included among those 22- Excuse me, 223 biosphere reserves.

The Great Smoky Mountain National Park is one of those places designated by the U.N.

as a place where nature is allowed to nourish itself and grow without human interference.

As part of the park's 50th anniversary celebration, representatives from all over the world gathered in Gatlinburg, Tennessee to gain further insight into the Biosphere Reserve System.

They tried to better define exactly what is meant by the term and to ensure that those areas are properly maintained.

Carolina Journal's Brian Ellison and videographer Herman Rich were also in Gatlinburg to find out more about this important and unique environmental project.

(birds squawking) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (water flowing) Dr.

Peine> It's difficult to define what a biosphere reserve is, but it is an area that has been designated by an agency of the United Nations, as having particularly important significance to the world.

In that, it harbors important environmental... niches, if you will, that represent our total natural system in the world.

The Great Smoky Mountains here, for instance, is a biosphere reserve because it represents the southern Appalachian Mountains that's an important natural system.

Biosphere Reserve movement, if you will, is a very young movement.

The National Park movement is over a hundred years old.

Biosphere Reserve movement is in its eighth year and it is evolving.

And the definition as to its purpose is evolving.

This is a very significant meeting in the evolution of this concept because for the first time, the managers of the biosphere reserves are getting together, scratching their heads and saying, "Okay, let's get down to business.

What is this mandate?

It's very generic.

What does it really mean to me as a manager on site?

Let's try and formulate some ideas here that specifically I can take back home to my biosphere reserve and implement with my resources and my people."

And so I think that what we will primarily accomplish with this conference is a definition of management challenges for these areas that have yet not been put in specific terms.

The point of evolution that brought on the biosphere reserve, is the realization that these areas that have been protected cannot survive as islands.

There are so many influences that go beyond the boundaries, and, require more attention than anyone realized in the past.

That it is just this evolution of awareness that has has increased to say, and this was really formulated, of course, by the United Nations probably inspired primarily globally through our national park system, started in this country.

But they're saying that's not enough now.

We don't have a global system of protected areas, here so that we- All these cute little beasties that are around the world will be there in the future.

And we need to think beyond the national park symbol and concept here to get to that.

And, that's just sort of a natural process of I think, you know, social awareness, and sophistication.

That's where we are now.

Most of the biosphere reserve managers in North America represented some from other parts of the country and, other groups like scientists and resource managers and private interest people.

And all of these individuals have come together for the first day to listen to experts talk about what the principles of biosphere reserve management are in very generic terms, like... the unlabeled food on the food shelf at the grocery store.

The second day, the managers are getting together with those principles and with this wonderful mix of scientists and outside concerned citizens.

And they're having workshops to interact and say, we have- They're interacting, trying to convert these general principles to very specific ideas.

And they're basing it on looking at problems, five very common problems... that are faced in these natural areas.

And, they're, they're looking at specific national parks that are biosphere reserves to help get a handle on that specificity.

Hopefully they will be able to prescribe some fairly specific programs that have really never been thought of before.

Biosphere reserve oriented programs that can be used, back in these parks and other biosphere reserves to deal with these common problems.

The problems that we're using as examples to get to this is air pollution, what we call an honorable renewable resources, which is like coal mining or, getting oil out of the ground.

We've got renewable resources as another group, which is, timber harvesting and grazing and that kind of thing.

We have visitor activities.

Problem species like, most everybody in the southeast.

You're from South Carolina.

You know about kudzu, don't you?

Okay, well, there's lots of things besides kudzu that are problem species, animals.

In the park here hogs.

Again, these are common problems that a lot of people face.

"Well, what's a biosphere reserve?

What can it do for me in solving those problems?"

And I think that's how we can get to this, this great leap, if you will, from, general feeling in general terms to really good, concrete ideas that people can implement.

Speaker> Air pollution, can discolor and weather materials such as historical buildings and monuments, as well as natural rock formations.

Air pollution can degrade visibility, impairing our ability to see and appreciate the formal contrast and detail of both near and distant features.

And finally, air pollution can harm man and animals, their health and their well-being.

Speaker #2> The specific suggestion I have to make is a change in terminology, in the... in the materials that comes out of the map people in Washington and so forth.

And that is avoid the term buffer area and substitute the term zone of cooperation.

Particularly the Bureau of Land Management, whom I can tell you some horror stories about that I'm not surprised, that they're not here today.

I think might very well have come a long, had you been able to talk in terms of zones of cooperation instead of zones and instead of buffer zones in this area where we have clusters as we spoke of and so forth.

And so my specific suggestion is those of you that have any influence on with the, people in Washington please consider substituting the word zone of cooperation and making that an operative term.

Dr.

Peine> In the management, of a biosphere reserve, ideally, there's a complement of functions of biosphere reserves.

And you need, of course, people and resources to address all of those functions, everything from the research to understanding the natural systems and how they react to pollution loading and so on.

To, interpreters and educators to... to involve the public and get them to understand the importance and significance and value to society of the resources.

> This stream tank was built to, study interactions between brook trout and rainbow trout.

And the, those interactions are one of our biggest problems in aquatics right now.

In a protected area, especially something like, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we can look at water quality and use, that as a standard that we would apply to other communities.

Since the Smokies are protected, then hopefully we have water quality that would be much like you would expect in streams everywhere.

And, so we can use that to compare how, badly we're treating streams outside of our parks.

Dr.

Peine> Biosphere Reserve Program again, emphasizes man... And a lot of time man's use of the environment.

And probably in the Smokies, you have as eloquent an example any of the 40 biosphere reserves in North America that show, physical evidence through these historic homesteads of how, early European settlers used these native resources.

And, it's really appropriate to try and convey that story and to preserve these cultural resources in their natural setting.

Because it is such an eloquent statement about how men can work compatibly and utilize, the natural systems.

We have a research project that... is looking at historically how people have used various plants and animals in the park.

And, we have a tremendous- There's 1,500 vascular plants, different kinds in this park.

So far, this study has shown that about 40 percent of those plants have been used, directly by people for specific human needs.

(car driving by) Researcher> My interest in the biosphere reserves has come from doing research in Africa, in the concept and, and I've worked in, in national parks here, and this is the first time I've seen so many park superintendents come together to discuss the biosphere reserve concept and to really talk about the practical applications and the problems of, of involving renewable resources.

And, and the first time I've seen serious thinking about really using the concept... you know, in some real park management and management of adjacent areas, and it's raising a lot of the big problems.

It's... I mean, the whole concept needs to be demystified quite a bit.

And I think it has to be demystified for park managers more than anybody.

And... I think that if these kinds of meetings can happen again and people can sustain the enthusiasm and really come away with the understanding that seems to be developed here, I think there's great potential.

Dr.

Peine> If a citizen with his Winnebago stopped and rolled down his window here in Gatlinburg and asked me, "Why can't I go to a state park?

What's the big deal about a biosphere reserve?"

I would have, difficulty in answering his question before the light changed, but, I think that, I could do it this way.

I could say that, what you have here in these gracious mountains is a commitment, a social commitment by people not only in this neighborhood, not only by our federal government, but globally through the United Nations saying this is very, this is a key... area, a key population of plants and animals that's important to human beings worldwide.

And as time changes, hopefully, and maybe the children of the guy in Winnebago and his children's children, will be able to, to reap the benefits, the rewards, the legacy of the more careful conservative protection.

The campsites might not look much different in a state park than what you find in the Great Smokies.

It's really that long-term perspective.

Usually the biosphere reserves have a richer variety of plant and animal communities, certainly, than the smaller units have.

And, that is critical to the long-term preservation of those things.

You get bear populations and they have a wide range, and you can't protect them in small, small units.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Why do we need a biosphere reserve?

If I had to answer that question very succinctly... I would simply say, "Why do we need you?"

Because the natural- People are part of the natural environment.

They cannot, as we know, divorce themselves from it and survive.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Bob> Many South Carolinians have always gone to the beach or the Upcountry, or Santee Cooper Lakes, and they've seen out-of-state license plates, sometimes even from Canada, but obviously from neighboring states.

But something that you're probably noticing more and more on your holiday travels and your vacation travels in South Carolina are different accents and different voices.

That's because South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism for the last three years has been actively attempting to lure Western Europeans to visit South Carolina and to enjoy the vacation opportunities many of us have known all our lives.

And as a matter of fact, this program has been judged.

This program, run by your state, has been judged the best in America by the Travel Industry Association of America.

In its three years of operations, over 70,000 Western Europeans have come and holidayed in South Carolina.

But more important than just those people visiting our beautiful attractions and our historic sites, and so much of what we have to offer more important than those raw 70,000 visitors, has been the dollars those people have left behind.

Over 16 million dollars in new spending for South Carolina, providing new jobs and opportunities.

We think this is an exciting program for South Carolina, and we think it affords more than just being a welcome host to visitors from Western Europe.

It gives us a chance for greater cultural exchange.

And I think something we're all hopeful for is further industrial development and growth.

As Europeans, our friends and neighbors from West Germany, from France, the Benelux countries, Great Britain, the United Kingdom, as they get to see and enjoy South Carolina.

They're going to take that message of our hospitality, our warmth, our friendship, and our pride.

And they're going to take that back home, to their nations.

And that's going to help us so much in return investment and future visitation.

This program is an exciting program, and it's done on a very limited budget.

Thanks to the good wishes of the General Assembly and the governor, we have been able to receive funding for this program for three years, and it's placed us on the map.

With the advent of Atlanta International Airport, we've seen more and more European arrivals.

We've also seen the... the coming of a new airport in Charleston, the fine facilities in Columbia and Greenville, and that area of the state opening up so many areas of South Carolina to European visitors.

We find the European visitor is most interested in, in our history, not the, the 300 years of our history, but the uniqueness of what South Carolina has to offer.

And one of our greatest selling points are you, the viewers out there, the people of South Carolina.

Every comment we get from Western European visitors is, "We're treated like friends.

We're welcome in South Carolina.

We want to come back.

We want to bring our family and friends."

So the reason that we're such a success in attracting European visitors is because of our people and our attractions, and we think this market is going to continue to grow during the years ahead.

Certainly, it's never going to replace our domestic market, but it's a vital new market and an exciting market for South Carolina.

And I think as you explore South Carolina, as you visit Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Hilton Head, the lakes or the mountains, you're going to run into more Europeans and you're going to realize what those visitors mean to South Carolina and our economy.

They're going to help travel and tourism continue to grow.

Already the second largest industry, they're going to see more than 2.6 billion dollars in spending.

And that money is going to grow.

And that means so much to each and every one of us.

♪ ♪ ♪ Tom> Carolina Journal would like to hear from you.

Your comments and suggestions are welcomed and we will read some on the air.

We would also like to share your slides with viewers statewide.

We will return them.

Send your letters and slides to Carolina Journal South Carolina ETV Drawer L Columbia, South Carolina 29250.

> ...Con game sound plausible, but I'd like to give you ten rules for healthy skepticism.

I won't guarantee if you follow them, they will make you absolutely immune from being cheated, but following them should greatly lessen your chances of being a victim.

Rule number one, no stranger gives you money for nothing.

Never give money to someone you don't know very well, and certainly not to a friendly stranger.

Number two, if anyone suggests that you take your money out of your bank account for any reason, go to the bank manager first.

Almost every bank manager knows about con games and will be glad to help you.

Number three, there isn't a genuine money making plan in the world that can't wait a day or two while you think it over or talk it over with your lawyer or your accountant.

Number four, no honest policeman or bank official will ever ask you to take money out of your savings or checking account, or ask you for your secret code for your bank card.

That code is yours.

Bank employees don't know it and don't want to know it.

Never tell it to anyone in person or over the telephone.

Number five, never give your credit card number or expiration date to someone who calls on the telephone and announces that you've won a prize, or money, or a free vacation.

Number six, read any contract carefully before you sign.

If you don't understand it, call your lawyer or seek legal advice elsewhere.

Number seven, when dealing with door to door salespeople, be sure you know the company is reputable and ask to see their identification credentials.

Be cautious about buying products or services from anyone whose truck... is their office.

Number eight, don't order anything through the mail, if the ad doesn't clearly tell you what you'll get for your money.

Never send cash when buying by mail order.

You are mailed something that requires you to send more money.

Don't do it.

If you are sent something through the mail you haven't ordered, you don't have to pay for it and you can keep it.

Number nine, don't invest except through a recognized and well-established investment dealer.

Number ten, don't join organizations such as health spas, buying clubs, and other organizations prior to their opening.

They may never open, and you may have purchased a membership in something that doesn't exist.

Don't join discount buying clubs, health spas and other such organizations that have large membership fees, which don't give you a few days to think it over.

If they make the pitch that you must join now or never, you choose never.

This message is brought to you through the cooperation of the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs.

And I'm Steve Hamm for Carolina Journal .

♪ ♪