Two international meetings in China during June,
and one in September in Dorset, made major strides in raising
global awareness of geoconservation, with JNCC making significant
contributions to all three.
The First International Conference on
Geoparks was held in Beijing in late June to promote this
growing concept of protected areas based on geodiversity values,
with JNCC presenting a keynote paper. For aficionados of protected
areas, geoparks would fit into the IUCN category III, a protected
area managed mainly for conservation of specific natural
features.
The World Heritage Committee also met in late
June, in Suzhou,China, with JNCC providing support to the UK
Government delegation. The meeting included discussion of a
JNCC-led review on developing a global geoconservation strategy for
the Convention, including the need to link to the geoparks
programme.
The Dorset conference, entitled Earth
heritage: World Heritage, helped to develop strategic
links between international geoconservation programmes. The event
explored a number of themes: the use of geodiversity audits and the
use of action plans to inform conservation strategy and planning;
benefits and limitations of protected area programmes; and
geodiversity links to biodiversity and cultural heritage.
The Chinese hosts for the summer meetings
provided ethnic music and dragon dancing. The English West Country
may lack dragons, but the event offered an evening talk from
broadcaster Aubrey Manning, trips to the spectacular coast, a
resident artist to capture the every mood of delegates, and a
genuine school dinner experience at a local school!