Conserving Indian Geoheritage: The Geopark Approach
Geography and You|Issue 136 - 137, 2019
Through a balanced blend of science, culture, education and tourism, geopark networks across the world are successfully improving the socio-economic condition of communities, thereby contributing to sustainable development of the region. India, with numerous geosites of significance, needs to learn from experiences world over and take a leap of faith to build its first global geopark.
- Manjit Kumar Mazumdar & Bidisha Bayan
Conserving Indian Geoheritage: The Geopark Approach

Geological sites record important geological phenomena that help trace the evolutionary history of the earth. These sites serve as the doorway to the planet’s 4600 million year history and provide essential information about the earth’s evolutionary changes and processes. Geoparks are however not only territories consisting of important geological and geomorphological sites, it often bears great archaeological, ecological and cultural significance. The conservation of the earth’s geodiversity through the multipronged geopark initiative, therefore, has the potential to contribute to the sustainable development objectives of Agenda 21 adopted by the United Nations in the Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 and reconfirmed in the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002.

The first global protected sites came into being as National Parks in 1872, followed by accreditations such as Regional Parks (1968), Biosphere Reserves (1976), World Heritage Properties (1978), Leader Territories (1991), Cultural Parks (1997) and finally Geoparks (2000) (Xun and Ting 2003; Martini and Zouros 2008; Martini 2009). However, in 1985, several years before the Digne symposium 1991 (https:// bit.ly/2qMXa8T) that mandated protection of geoheritage sites, Chinese geologists had already proposed the establishment of geoparks in territories with marked geological landscapes in an effort to boost geoscientific surveys and provide a fillip to conservation.

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この蚘事は Geography and You の Issue 136 - 137, 2019 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

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