Recent State Policy and Its Impact on Geopark Establishment and Operation in Slovakia

Marián Lukáč,Samer Khouri,Alexander Černega,Ľubomír Štrba

doi:10.3390/land10101069

Abstract

The geological evolution and structure of the territory of Slovakia plays a key role in the current geodiversity of the country. The importance of this key element of the environment is widely and most effectively represented in geoparks. This paper is devoted to the state policy of geopark establishment and operation in Slovakia. Despite the relatively well-established concept of geoparks in the world, its position is not entirely clear in Slovak legislation. So, both bottom-up initiatives and top-down strategies are not quite successful in geopark operations, especially when considering the sustainability of Slovak geoparks. The possible future position of geoparks in Slovakia, in terms of state policies, may be found (as discussed in this paper) in adopting specific legislation which will effectively support the development of these potential (geo)tourist areas, contributing to both sustainable tourism development and nature protection.

Highlights

The concept of geoparks is recently one of the most effective and, in some regions, still relatively new forms for attracting the general public’s attention and informing them on the importance, values and protection need of geological heritage sites
The methodology understands the geopark with respect to the intentions of destination management as a product of tourism linked to a specific area, the essence of which lies in a unique way of interpreting the potential of a given area
In Slovakia, concerning geoparks, the axiom was the protection of nature and geological heritage

Summary

Introduction

The concept of geoparks is recently one of the most effective and, in some regions, still relatively new forms for attracting the general public’s attention and informing them on the importance, values and protection need of geological heritage sites. In this regard, geoparks significantly contribute to the conservation of geological heritage and its preservation for future generations. In June 2000, the European Geoparks Network was established by representatives of four countries (France, Germany, Greece, Spain) [2]. In 2004, 17 European and 8 Chinese geoparks introduced the Global Geopark Network under the auspices of UNESCO [3]. The Program of geoparks was adopted by UNESCO in 2015 creating a new label, the UNESCO Global Geopark [4]

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