Wikipedia:WikiProject United Nations/Biosphere Reserve Descriptions


UNESCO has made the official descriptions of all Biosphere Reserves available under a CC-BY-SA license. This guide will help you create missing English language Wikipedia articles for the Biosphere Reserves using the official descriptions, it is written for Visual Editor to make the process as simple as possible. A map showing Biosphere Reserves with English Wikipedia articles can be found here.

There are many descriptions available in other official UN languages (French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese), instructions for reusing descriptions in those languages can be found here.

Page view statistics for Wikipedia articles using text from Biosphere Reserve description pages.

A guide is available for Biosphere Reserves to learn about how they can share their knowledge and content with Wikimedia.


Step 1: Choose an article to create edit

  1. Click this link to see a map of the Biosphere Reserves that don't have English language Wikipedia articles.
  2. Click on a point you would like to create an article for.
  3. Click on the Official description web link.
  4. Copy the text on the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve description page.

Step 2: Create the Wikipedia article edit

  1. Go to English Wikipedia and make sure you are logged in.
  2. Type the Biosphere Reserve name you would like to create from the map into the search bar.
  3. Click the link at the bottom: containing...
  4. If the article already exists skip to Step 5: Adding the article to Wikidata.
  5. If the article does not exist click the red link, to switch to Visual Editor click Create at the top of the editing window.
  6. Paste the text copied from the UNESCO website into the blank article.
  7. Add links to other articles and alter the text to fit with the style of Wikipedia (some of the description pages do not fit the style of Wikipedia precisely)
  8. Add the category Biosphere reserves of NAMEOFCOUNTRY (replace NAMEOFCOUNTRY with the country the Biosphere is in)


Step 3: Attribute the text edit

Note: These instructions are for Visual Editor, to see how to do the same step in Source Editor please click here.

  1. At the bottom of the page type Sources and make the text a Heading.
  2. Click Insert and then Template on the menu
  3. Paste Free-content attribution into the box, click the first option and then click add template
  4. Add the following information to the fields provided
    1. Title: NAME OF BIOSPHERE RESERVE, UNESCO - MAB Biosphere Reserves Directory
    2. Publisher: UNESCO
    3. Document URL: The URL of the description on the UNESCO website
    4. License statement URL: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/world-network-wnbr/wnbr/
    5. Licence: CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0
  5. Save the page using 'Created page using CC-BY-SA text' in the edit summary.

Step 4: Link from other Wikipedia articles edit

  1. Go to the Talk Page for the article and click edit and paste {{WikiProject Protected areas|class=|importance=}} into the edit window and save the page.
  2. In the Wikipedia search bar paste the name of the new article
  3. Click the link at the bottom that says containing...
  4. Add links from any articles that mention the new article you have created
  5. Check the appropriate World Network of Biosphere Reserves list and update the link to the article as needed
    1. Africa
    2. Arab States
    3. Asia and the Pacific
    4. Europe and North America
    5. Latin America and the Caribbean

Step 5: Add the article to Wikidata edit

  1. Click on the Wikidata item for the article you just created on the map
  2. Find the box that says Wikipedia.
  3. At the bottom of the list add the language code (en) and the name of the article.
  4. Click Save
  5. Done :) The map will update in around 15 minutes, you will be able to see a link to your article on this map of Biosphere Reserves with English Wikipedia articles.