Plugging the GAP
Developments in conserving our geological
Geodiversity as a word is as yet unfamiliar to most people, but
it is gaining ground. In essence, it means the natural range
(‘-diversity’) of geological, geomorphological and
soil features (that’s the ‘geo-’ part). JNCC continues to help
conserve geodiversity through various contributions, and is
developing its own geoconservation strategy, which we will report
in a future issue of Nature News.
In previous editions of Nature News
we highlighted JNCC’s efforts in recording the most scientifically
important geodiversity sites in Great Britain as part of the
Geological Conservation Review (GCR) programme. The GCR has two
main strands. Firstly, publication in book form and on the web of
site reports that enable us to justify SSSI status of geodiversity
sites. The second strand is in keeping our site lists, and
knowledge about our conserved sites, up-to-date.
The GCR continues to be a ‘golden thread’ that
runs through geoconservation work in Britain. With 34 of the 45 GCR
volumes already produced in book form, and with 16 of those
published volumes available freely on line at
http://www.thegcr.org.uk/,
we can demonstrate our effectiveness at justifying and publicising
the scientific case for conserving GCR sites. Work is now being
completed on providing another four GCR volumes on-line – two
further Jurassic volumes (‘Middle’ and ‘Lower’, including
descriptions of World Heritage Site localities), a volume on fossil
reptiles, and one detailing our most important karst (limestone
scenery) and caves sites. Progress on completing the remaining 11
GCR volumes is well advanced. All of this proves that we are well
placed to justify our geoconservation activity in Britain.
Building a UK Geodiversity Action Plan
Building on the GCR work, we are now involved in helping to
construct a UK Geodiversity Action Plan (UKGAP), which will form a
framework that embraces geoconservation not only nationally, but
also regionally and locally. The UKGAP provides a shared context
and direction for geoconservation. The UKGAP will facilitate
partnership, influence decision- and policy-makers and funding
bodies, and promote good practice that favours our geodiversity. A
prototype website
www.ukgap.org.uk has just
been launched and will be developed over time, acting as a focus
for celebrating geodiversity, demonstrating the actions we need to
take and capturing the actions as they happen.
JNCC is also working on geoconservation in the
Overseas Territrories and Crown Dependencies, with a report about
to be published on our geoconservation goals in those areas.
Similarly, work is underway to ensure that marine geodiversity is
not ignored.
Geodiversity and climate change
Climate change as a topic is rarely out of our
minds these days, and the relevance of geodiversity in the whole
debate is about to be considered in a meeting later this year. At
this stage the thinking is very much exploratory, but we hope that
it will inform planning for the future. The day-long event will be
held at the University of Chester on 4 June 2009 and will
examine:
- the impacts of climate change and how they will affect sites
that are valued for their geological and geomorphological
interests;
- the implications for the future management of sites; and, in
particular,
- how geomorphological processes in the wider landscape will
adapt under this changing regime.
We will report on how geodiversity
conservation is developing in a future issue of Nature
News. It will undoubtedly reflect the massive resource of GCR
information that JNCC guards, and will involve our contribution to
showing how geoconservation is an integral part of the way that we
can contribute to nature conservation in a world undergoing
changing climate and land-use.
Neil Ellis
GCR Publications Manager and Geoconservation
Adviser
Tel: +44 (0) 1733 866906
Email: