Abstract
Geoparks are territories with a sustainable development strategy based on the conservation of geoheritage and its use in educational and geotourism activities, together with other natural and cultural resources of the territory. Geoparks gained the international distinction label ‘UNESCO Global Geoparks’ in 2015. The geoheritage of each geopark is the core of its strategy and therefore needs to be properly identified, assessed, conserved and managed. This chapter gives some guidelines about these procedures and presents some examples, particularly addressed to geopark managers and to those involved with geopark projects.
Highlights
This chapter was originally published in the book Geoheritage, published by Elsevier, and the attached copy is provided by Elsevier for the author's benefit and for the benefit of the author's institution, for non-commercial research and educational use including without limitation use in instruction at your institution, sending it to specific colleagues who know you, and providing a copy to your institution's administrator
The Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) was approved by UNESCO in 1971 as an intergovernmental scientific programme aimed at establishing a scientific basis for the improvement of relationships between people and their environments (Fig. 18.1)
UNESCO adopted the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage aimed at permanently protecting properties with cultural and/or natural assets with ‘outstanding universal value’ (OUV)
Summary
The geopark is the striking concept that in less than 20 years has gained a worldwide recognition and has taken geoheritage outside the limited and small world of geoscientists. In order to overcome this unbalanced international recognition, the geoscientific community proposed in the 1990s two new global actions: the Global Indicative List of Geological Sites (GILGES), later renamed Global Geosites Project (Cowie, 1993; Cowie and Wimbledon, 1994) and the UNESCO Geoparks Programme (Patzak and Eder, 1998; UNESCO, 1999) The latter intended to ‘promote a global network of geoparks safeguarding and developing selected areas having significant geological features’ (Patzak and Eder, 1998; UNESCO, 1999) and to support national initiatives for the preservation of important geological sites in line with sustainable development (Erdelen, 2006). The new guidelines clearly state that ‘a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development’ must manage areas with ‘geological heritage of international value’ represented by ‘sites and landscapes of international geological significance’ (UNESCO, 2015) This new international setting has set, for the very first time, a new level of recognition for the geoheritage. This is undoubtedly a new and challenging opportunity to promote geoheritage at the international level and at the national and local levels
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