156-2 Global Geosites and Key Geodiversity Areas: Towards an international designation for conserving the foundations and heritage of the geosciences

Session: Geoheritage Without Borders: International Perspectives on the Conservation and Celebration of Geodiversity, Part I

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Although many countries had started identifying national geological sites for conservation, it was the foundation of ProGEO (www.progeo.ngo) –the International Association for the Conservation of Geological Heritage– in 1988 that started to raise awareness of the international importance of many such sites. By the early 1990s, a Global Indicative List of Geological sites had been prepared in collaboration with IUGS, IUCN and UNESCO, which evolved into a concept of ‘Global Geosites’. Due to changing external priorities, the initiative did not develop further but ProGEO continued to work with the Geodiversity Specialist Group of IUCN (www.https://iucn.org/commissions/world-commission-protected-areas/our-work/Geoheritage) to establish the foundation for conserving geoscience sites globally through promoting resolutions at IUCN World Conservation Congresses, including: ‘Conservation of geodiversity and geological heritage’ (2008), ‘Conservation of moveable geological heritage’ (2016) and Geoheritage and protected areas, Promoting 'Key Geodiversity Areas’ as a complement to ‘Key Biodiversity Areas’(2020) and Motions S062 (Defining nature for IUCN’s future) and SO63 (Identifying Key Geoheritage Areas for safeguarding geoheritage sites of global significance’ (for 2025). The latter motion marks the evolution of the Global Geosites concept into ‘Key Geodiversity Areas’ (https://iucn.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/kga-issues-paper_6_red.pdf) as an international, legal designation comparable to those already established for ecological conservation. KGAs will complement existing non-statutory, international designations for geoscience sites or areas, which have developed in parallel, including UNESCO’s sustainable-development focussed Global Geoparks programme and IUGS’s global ‘100 Geological Sites’ initiative, celebrating the world’s most iconic geological sites. Key Geodiversity Areas, in contrast, will provide a systematic framework through which all geological sites with a significant international importance can be identified to national conservation bodies and hence receive the protection they need for future generations to benefit. There will be no requirement for an associated sustainable development initiative, for the site to be ‘iconic’ to a global geoscience community - or even truly globally exceptional at the level of ‘World Heritage. As geoscientists, Key Geodiversity Areas, AKA Global Geosites, will enable us to help ensure that all the planet’s most important sites for our discipline, remain available for future generations to study and learn – these sites are both the foundations and heritage of our science.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-6412

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