In many parts of the world, the regeneration, econ-omic growth and social changes that took place inthe two decades that followed the Second WorldWar, led to increased leisure time and tourismand a greater awareness of the world around us.In addition, the realization of our ability todestroy both ourselves and the environment inwhich we live, clearly evident during the ColdWar years, led to a greater appreciation of thefragile nature of the natural environment. By thelate 1960s, increasing loss of countryside to devel-opment, and the ability to see our planet fromspace, led to an enhanced regard of the fragilityof the environment in which we live. By the1970s an environmental revolution, with conserva-tion at its core, was in full swing, highlighted bythe pioneering 1972 United Nations Conferenceon the Human Environment held in Stockholm.By the 1990s the Earth Summit, held in Rio in1992, had placed the environment, through itsrole in achieving sustainable development, on theglobal political and social agenda. Today, it isclimate change that reminds us that we have thepower to do irreparable damage to the naturalenvironment that supports us.This book provides the first collection of paperstoaddressthehistoryofgeoconservation.Itseekstoexplore the origins of the subject and the conceptsthat helped to define it; it describes the history ofgeoconservation in the UK, looks more widely tothe Republic of Ireland, mainland Europe and Aus-tralia and explores the evolution and impact ofglobal conservation initiatives including WorldHeritage sites and Geoparks. In doing this, it high-lights the invaluable contributions to geoconserva-tion made by academics, geological societies,governments, conservationists, volunteers andlocal communities. The papers demonstrate thatthe origin and development of this subject is inter-esting and informative in itself but more impor-tantly, through revealing the history ofgeoconservation successes and failures, theyprovide us with an increased understanding ofhow we got to where we are now; invaluableknowledge in helping geoconservation meet thechallenges that lie in the future.Geoconservation is now a growing and wide-spread activity that is well established in the UK,Europe and many other parts of the world. Priorto the conference held in Dudley, England, inNovember 2006, there had been little thought ormaterial published on the history of geoconserva-tion. There are a number of reasons for this. Thefirst is that geoconservation is a relatively new dis-cipline that has had a low profile until the lastcouple of decades during which it has grownrapidly. Anotheris thatthisexpansionhasbeensus-tained bya forward lookingapproach rather thanonlooking back at the history of the subject. Thispattern of slow steady growth, with more recentrapid expansion, is well illustrated in the UK.Here, a few early but isolated examples of geocon-servation can be identified prior to the twentiethcentury; conservation legislation and a nationallycoordinated and structured approach to geoconser-vation was in place by 1950; and the rise of thevoluntary sector in the form of Regionally Impor-tant Geological/geomorphological Sites (RIGS)groups (Regionally Important Geodiversity Sitesin Wales) boosted activity levels and participationingeoconservationbythe1990s.Bythetwenty-firstcentury, the appearance of European Geoparks hasled to another step-up in geoconservation activitylevel. In many other parts of the world, activitylevels have risen even more rapidly, jumping fromrelatively low levels to relatively high levels asGeoparks have opened up new opportunities andenthusiasm for geoconservation.Geoconservation is undoubtedly an expandingand dynamic activity. It is ‘happening today’ andthrough Geoparks is growing a strong internationalcommunity involving more countries than everbefore. It is an exciting time for those interestedin geoconservation. It is possible to demonstratehow geoconservation can inform an enlightenedpublic and how geological and geomorphologicalfeatures, processes, sites and specimens can con-tribute to the environmental, social and economic