UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) was launched in 1971 to safeguard the nature through building up a World Network of Biosphere Reserves and Parks. Today, the World Network of Biosphere Reserves currently counts 669 sites in 120 countries all over the world, including 16 transboundary sites.

Chervenata stena reserve is one of those 17 sites, designated as a biosphere reserve in 1977.

The Conference in Seville, Spain (1995) drew up a new strategy for the biosphere reserves (the Seville Strategy) and defined them as emblematic places, examples for reconciling people and nature, bringing knowledge of the past to the needs of the future, demonstrating good practices and policies not only about biodiversity and natural ecosystems conservation but about the sustainable development of the local communities as well.
At the meeting in March 2016, the National MAB Committee of UNESCO took a decision on nomination for designation of Chervenata stena reserve as one of the first biosphere reserves of new type in Bulgaria. As a result of the common efforts of the Ministry of Environment and Water, Assenovgrad municipality and the Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water – Plovdiv, a nomination form was prepared and submitted to the MAB Secretariat. As a consequence, in 2017 Chervenata stena was designated by UNESCO to be one of the first Bulgarian modern-generation post-Seville biosphere parks.