Zoning is a specific tool designed to enable the management of a reserve to be adapted to comply with the regulations in each particular country.

Main types of zone in biosphere reserves. Diagram taken from the booklet, "Octavius on Biosphere Reserves" published by MAB France, © Octavius, MAB France

Thus each biosphere reserve includes three types of interdependent zone:
A central (core) area which has a legal status in the law of the country concerned that provides for long-term protection of the countryside, the ecosystems, and the plant and animal species found there. This may be divided into several sub-units. It must be large enough to ensure the preservation of all these elements, and may even constitute the reserve as a whole. It could also consist of an ecosystem evolving without Man's intervention. Others may have only a limited level of human activity: research and education for example, or traditional activities such as grazing that help maintain biodiversity.

The buffer zone will normally be adjacent to or surround the core area, thus contributing to its preservation. Only activities causing little disruption are allowed in this zone. These include research aimed at developing techniques for the use of the natural resources that respect the area's biodiversity, or for improving the management or rehabilitation of ecosystems.

The transition (or co-operative) area will normally include human activities, villages and towns. The economic and social activities that are intended to provide sustainable development for the benefit of the population will normally be sited there.