News
Webinars on UNESCO Global Geoparks for Africa and Arab States
UNESCO and the Global Geoparks Network (GGN) will host two webinars on the UNESCO Global Geoparks concept for Africa and the Arab States, on 11 and 14 December 2020. The webinars aim to explain the fundamental principles of UNESCO Global Geoparks in order to show the importance of geo-heritage in sustainable development and enable governments to support emerging initiatives in geo-heritage.
The exchanges during this series of webinars should allow UNESCO and GGN to identify potential initiatives and sites that could become UNESCO Global Geoparks in Africa and the Arab States, with a view to providing further assistance.
Counting on the participation of international experts, these webinars are also intended to be a forum for discussion with local experts or stakeholders so that they can explain their challenges and opportunities.
The first webinar will be hosted in English, (Friday 11 December 2020, from 8.30 to 12.30 GMT) by Tanzania and the Ngorongoro-Lengai UNESCO Global Geopark, and will target in particular Eastern and Southern Africa and the Arab States. .
The second webinar, will be hosted in French (Friday 11 December 2020, from 8.30 to 12.30 GMT) by the Kingdom of Morocco and the M'Goun UNESCO Global Geopark, and will target Western and Central Africa and the Maghreb countries. .
The UNESCO Global Geoparks were established in 2015. They are the mechanism of international cooperation by which areas of geological heritage, through a bottom-up approach to conserving that heritage, support each other to engage with local communities to promote awareness of that heritage and adopt a sustainable approach to the development of the area.
UNESCO Global Geoparks support local and indigenous people through the creation of innovative local enterprises, new jobs and high-quality training courses as well as new sources of revenue generated through geotourism, while the geological resources of the area are protected. Currently there are 161 UNESCO Global Geoparks in 44 Countries and the network is expanding fast. Yet, there are blind spots on the map where the concept remains largely unknown, in particular in Africa and the Arab States. Hence, UNESCO and the Global Geoparks Network (GGN) have been jointly delivering several courses, workshops and webinars since 2015.
