The First International Conference on Geoparks will be held from June 27 to 29 in Beijing to better protect geological heritage in the world.

Geoparks, which are short for geological parks, are referred to territories that have unique geological landforms and are typical of certain geological evolutionary history.

In 1996, the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) formally proposed the concept of Geopark for the first time in a bid to protect geological heritage.Then, European geologists attending the 30th International Geological Conference in Beijing also proposed to build geoparks in Europe.

In April, 1999, the UNESCO made a plan of developing geoparks, aiming to build 20 global geoparks every year. China is included as one of the pilot countries.

On February 13 this year, the UNESCO ratified the first group of 25 global geoparks. Eight of them are in China: namely, Huangshan Geopark in Anhui, Lushan Geopark in Jiangxi, Yuntaishan Geopark in Henan, Shilin Geopark in Yunnan, Danxia Geopark in Guangdong, Zhangjiajie Geopark in Hunan, Wudalianchi Geopark in Heilongjiang and Songshan Geopark in Hennan. The rest 17 are respectively in Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Britain.

Chinese government has paid great attention to protection of geological heritage. In November, 1999, the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources made a ten-year-plan of geological heritage protection and decided to build national geoparks.

Up to now, China has set up 85 national geoparks. An official with the ministry said earlier this week that China plans to build over 300 geoparks and reserve areas of geological heritage in the future.

Source: Xinhua