Geoconservation
Geoconservation is a relatively new scientific field that has emerged in recent decades due to the growing importance of conservation and sustainable use of environmental resources.
The concept of “geoconservation” can be defined as an activity or group of actions that contribute to the conservation, rational management, and protection of geological structures that present geodiversity and hence have scientific and educational value. The goal of geoconservation is to identify, protect, and manage valuable parts of geodiversity.
Zafeiropoulos, G.; Drinia, H.; Antonarakou, A.; Zouros, N. From Geoheritage to Geoeducation, Geoethics and Geotourism: A Critical Evaluation of the Greek Region. Geosciences 2021, 11, 381. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences11090381
Geoheritage and geoconservation are notions concerned with the preservation of Earth Science features, such as landforms, natural and artificial exposures of rocks, and sites where geological features can be examined. Geoheritage focuses on the diversity of minerals, rocks and fossils, and petrogenetic features that indicate the origin and/or alteration of minerals, rocks and fossils. It also includes landforms and other geomorphological features that illustrate the effects of present, and past, exposure to climate and Earth forces. Geoconservation derives from geoheritage, in that it deals with the conservation of Earth Science features. Globally, it has become important because it has been recognized that Earth systems have a story to tell, and that they are linked to the ongoing history of human development, providing the resources for development, and a sense of place, with historical, cultural, aesthetic, and religious values.
Brocx, Margaret & Semeniuk, Vic. (2007). Geoheritage and geoconservation - History, definition, scope and scale. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia. 90. 53-87.
Much of the focus in nature conservation is on living things - biodiversity. Geoconservation deals with the conservation of non-living parts of the natural environment - geological features, landforms and soils.
These non-living parts of the natural environment have significant values, and many aspects of this geodiversity are just as sensitive to disturbance as biodiversity. Moreover, biodiversity is dependent upon geodiversity, so that successful nature conservation requires the integration of bioconservation with geoconservation.
Geoconservation aims to preserve the natural diversity - or 'geodiversity' - of significant geological (bedrock), geomorphological (landform) and soil features and processes, and to maintain natural rates and magnitudes of change in those features and processes.
'Geoconservation' can be defined as:
the conservation of geodiversity for its intrinsic, ecological and (geo)heritage values, where 'geodiversity' means:
the range (or diversity) of geological (bedrock), geomorphological (landform) and soil features, assemblages, systems and processes.
Geoconservation is an approach to the conservation management of rocks, landforms and soils which recognizes that geodiversity has nature conservation values. Considering nature conservation to necessarily comprise both geoconservation and bioconservation provides a more holistic approach than is often the case in purely biocentric approaches to nature conservation.
The term 'Geoconservation', as used here, encompasses but is broader than the approaches which are known by such terms as 'Geological Heritage Conservation', Earth Heritage Conservation', 'Earth Science Conservation' or 'Geological Monuments Protection'. The latter approaches tend to focus on the protection of significant geological and landform features because of their scientific, educational, research, aesthetic and inspirational values to humans. Geoconservation encompasses these concerns, but is based on the view that geodiversity is also important because geological, landform and soil processes are the essential basis upon which all ecological processes depend. Thus, a primary focus of geoconservation is the protection of natural geodiversity in order to not only protect features of direct scientific or inspirational value to humans, but also in order to maintain the natural ecological (including biological) processes which are the focus of most nature conservation concerns.
Geoconservation is important because:
- Geodiversity has a range of values which are important and worthy of protection; and:
- Geodiversity includes many features and processes of significant value which are sensitive to disturbance and which, in areas subject to human activities, may easily be degraded if they are not specifically managed for. Furthermore, many elements of geodiversity are relict or 'fossil' features which are irreplaceable if degraded.
Two basic aims of geoconservation management can be identified:
• Maintenance of Geodiversity
• Maintenance of natural rates and magnitudes of change
Sharples, Chris. (2002). Concepts and principles of geoconservation.
Williams, M.A., McHenry, M.T. & Boothroyd, A. Geoconservation and Geotourism: Challenges and Unifying Themes. Geoheritage 12, 63 (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-020-00492-1
Difference between conservation and preservation as applied to the natural environment:
Conservation can be taken as meaning the ‘active management of something to ensure its quality is retained’. This places the emphasis on management of something to retain a particular quality, rather than on preservation of the feature, site, process etc. with no change at all. Geoconservation, therefore, usually involves working with natural change to retain a feature of interest, for example, maintaining a clear exposure of a stratigraphical sequence in an eroding cliff, despite the erosion. It is not about stopping the erosion and freezing the exposure in time. Preservation on the other hand, can be taken as ‘keeping something in the same state, stopping it from changing’, i.e. mothballing it and allowing no physical change. However, in some circumstances conservation of a finite and sensitive feature such as a mineral vein may require an approach much more akin to preservation than conservation.
In simple terms, geoconservation can be defined as action taken with the intent of conserving and enhancing geological and geomorphological features, processes, sites and specimens. As successful conservation often depends on understanding and valuing the feature, process, site, or specimens to be conserved, the actions taken often also include promotional and awareness raising activities.
Burek, Cynthia & Prosser, Colin. (2008). The history of geoconservation: An introduction. Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 300. 1-5. 10.1144/SP300.1.