Guidelines for geoconservation in protected and conserved areas

Abstract

These Guidelines are intended to help improve the conservation and management of geoheritage and geodiversity in protected and conserved areas and recognition of the interrelationships and interactions with biological features and processes. They are not a textbook on geoconservation management practice, but rather set out the essential background, context and principles; summarise relevant material to make it more readily accessible to users in one volume; and provide links to the key literature and additional sources that include detailed practical guidance. The use of best practice examples from around the world will hopefully give users renewed confidence in looking after geoheritage and in connecting geoconservation with biodiversity conservation.

Calcerous Tufa as Invaluable Geotopes Endangered by (Over-)Tourism: A Case Study in the UNESCO Global Geopark Swabian Alb, Germany

“…Since geotourism makes an increasingly important contribution to regional added value, especially in rural-peripheral areas [65,109], and since geotope protection is an essential task of geoparks [76], protection measures are urgently needed [31][32][33][34][35][36].…”

Introducing New Guidelines on Geoheritage Conservation in Protected and Conserved Areas

“…Source: Crofts et al (2020) geoconservation areas are set out in the guidelines in some detail. Consideration should also be given to links with international designations, such as the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network and World Heritage Sites, and possible links with biotic-focused designations, such as Biosphere Reserves and Ramsar Sites (Fig.…”

“…Areas that conserve ecosystems, together with associated cultural values and traditional natural resource management systems; generally large, mainly in a natural condition, with a proportion under sustainable natural resource management and where low-level non-industrial natural resource use compatible with nature conservation is seen as one of the main aims Great Barrier Reef National Park, Queensland, Australia: General Use Zone Gros Morne World Heritage site and National Park, Canada: Community Area (over 180,000 ha in extent; ancestral home of the Mi'kmaq people); includes geological features important for understanding the evolution of ancient mountain belts and glaciation Source: Crofts et al (2020) engineering; river management and engineering; forestry and vegetation encroachment; agricultural impacts; recreation and tourism pressures; collection of specimens; and climate change and sea-level change.…”

“…To address this deficiency, the Geoheritage Specialist Group of WCPA gained agreement from WCPA to develop guidelines on this subject under the leadership of Roger Crofts, a former research geomorphologist and protected area organisation leader. The resulting guidance (Crofts et al 2020) has now been released in PDF and can be freely downloaded at https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.CH.2020. PAG.31.en.…”

Geodiversity Assessment with Crowdsourced Data and Spatial Multicriteria Analysis

“…They were compiled using standard GIS data processing functions for the geodiversity assessment task. The above-mentioned factors meet the conditions of commonly used definitions of geodiversity [2][3][4]32]. (G) hydrography: 1-rivers and streams, 2-lakes, ponds, reservoirs, 3-wetlands and swamps larger than 10 ha, 4-wetlands and swamps smaller than 10 ha, 5-springs, topographic wetness index: from −3.0 to 6.8 [-].…”