Let the geological relics "live"
--- focusing on the construction of geological parks in China
Source: www.mir.gov.cn Citation: www.agkyb.com Date: October 28, 2015
The lecture on special topic of Geopark and Geological Tourism Development during CHINA MINING 2015 was held at Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center in Tianjin on October 23rd. This was the first time to incorporate the session on “Geological Relic’s Protection and Geopark Construction” into the CHINA MINING Congress and Expo. The attendees shared experiences and achievements of geological park and geological tourism development in China.
Open a New Chapter in China Geological Park Construction
“The concept of geopark is put forward in the mid-1990s and the geopark construction aims at preserving geological relics and environment, popularizing science education and reasonably developing resources of geological relics to promote sustainable development in local society and economy, and making use of geosciences theories and methods and absorbing essence of other disciplines to serve for tourism resources survey, evaluation, planning, development, management and protection so as to advance tourism development.” Mr. Wu Zhenhan, Director of Scientific & Foreign Affairs Department under China Geological Survey and Vice-president of Chinese Academy of Geological Science, gave an introduction to the origin of geopark.
China is rich in geological relics with full range of types, as a rare country in the world. China firstly proposed that government departments led the organization and construction of national geological park and also became one of the early country with geoparks in the world. Ministry of Land and Resources held the forum on National Geological and Geomorphic Landscape Protection in Weihai of Shandong Province in 1999, with the proposal of initiating the program of national geological park. And two institutions, national geological relic and geopark leading group and its review committee, were established based on the program with a series of documents and standards.
The geological park construction in China is booming. According to the introduction from Madam Chen Xiaoning, Deputy Director-General of Geological Environment Department under Ministry of Land and Resources, there were 11 national geological parks approved in 2001 with 33 national geological parks in 2002 and 41 national geological parks in 2004… Up to now, a total of 185 national geological parks have been approved in China. In the view of distribution, our national geological parks generally spread across 31 provinces and municipals around the country. Among which, the geological parks in the western regions are well developed.
It is reported that China has started the application for world-class national geopark since the year of 2013 in order to respond to the proposal of world-class national geopark by the UNESCO. To date, there are 120 world-class geological parks across 33 countries and regions in the world, and 33 of them are in China with roughly a quarter accounted for all. A remarkable achievement has been made in our geological park construction with a unique management model, which has been praised by the UNESCO for our geological park construction playing a pioneering and motivated role.
Madam Chen Xiaoning indicated “Geological Environment Department of Ministry of Land and Resources, as the functional department for geological relic’s protection, has made continuous efforts to explore the way to preserve geological relics for many years. From constructing the simple conservation area to the geopark combined development with protection, the geological park construction is the best and effective way to protect the geological relics.
“China has taken the lead in the national geological park construction around the world and owns unique features, which has made a significant influence and played an important role in our social and economic development.” This is the evaluation from Wu Zhenhan about the role of geological park in China.
Active Exploration for New Model Across China
It is informed that Qinglan Geopark in Guangdong Province is initially slow to develop and covers a small scale of 17.16 square kilometers, mainly featuring with geomorphic water erosion. There are abundant and various geological relics and landscapes including hot spring, waterfall and green pound, and the Green Island of them is the AAAA scenic area in China.
Speaking of this geopark construction, Mr.Lin Wenfeng, county magistrate of People’s Government of Raoping County of Chaozhou City in Guangdong Province, indicated that Qinglan Geopark has consistently adhered to the principle of developing with protection and protecting with development and explored and formed a whole of feasible ideas and measures through practice.
First, innovating“protection and development”mode. A large amount of funds is required for the protection and development of a geological park. The Raoping County, the location area of Qinlan Geopark, merely owned the public financial budget of 400 million yuan in 2012, which was difficulty in covering the investment for protection and development of geological park. Facing this challenge, the government, based on the full investigation and survey, took the initiative to mobilize the leading enterprises in local tourism to be a part of the development and construction of geological park. With a cooperative model of separating the ownership and management, the ownership belongs to the local government, while the management depended on the autonomous investment of enterprises according to the principle of developing with protection and protecting with development. The enterprises were entitled to develop and utilize the geological park and assumed sole responsibility for their own management decisions, profits and losses; in addition, they were also responsible for the investment and construction of geothermal museum and other facilities for science education.
Second, strengthening government leadership and improving working mechanism. Qinglan Geopark has consistently placed protection as top priority and development as second to improve the mechanism for planning and management during the process of promoting the protection management and development utilization.
Third, promoting “protection and development” in high standards and quality. The county established the idea of building excellent a geopark during its construction, and merely spent three years, with the leadership of government and funds from enterprises, to bring the Qinglan Geopark into a large scenic area integrated the geological tourism, science popularization and research, leisure and vacation with ecotourism.
Qianglan Geopark innovated the running model of protection and development, adopted the cooperative model of separating the ownership and management, strengthened government leadership and gave a full play to the role of companies, which ultimately achieved remarkable benefits in society, ecology and economy.
Another geopark with significant progresses is exemplified by Alxa Desert Global Geopark of China. When mention of the geopark future, Madam Naren Tuya, Director of Alxa Desert Global Geopark of China, gave full confidence on it. And she said, “Alxa Desert Global Geopark has currently entered into a new development stage and will continue to focus on the resources conservation and ecological environment construction of desert geological relics, promote the desert geoscience popularization and education and research, innovate working methods and strictly follow the standards for global geopark construction and management to explore a feasible and new management model of desert geoscience tourism conformed to the local sustainable development in society and economy so as to bring the desert geoscience tourism from Alxa into the world.”
Tianzhushan Global Geopark took advantage of its own strength to take an active part in the international cooperation and exchange to introduce its landscape and achievements in all aspects into the world. In addition, its unique features in working and achievement, which exemplify the very best in the construction, running and management of China global geological parks.
Yanqing Global Geopark, one of the geoparks in the Capital circle, is now working out a 3-year administrative outline. Mr. You Baojun, Director of Administration for Yanqing Global Geopark of China indicated that this geopark followed the construction principle of “establishment on science research, sustainable development, communication and mutual benefits”. Meanwhile, he also introduced the overall conditions of geoparks in the Capital circle. At present, Beijing totally owns 8 geoparks with 2 global geoparks including the Fangshan Global Geopark and Yanqing Global Geopark. Both of them in the mountainous area around Beijing are the ecological conservation area and also serve as the green protective screen for Beijing.
Geoscience Tourism Seizes Opportunity to Booming
The geological relic’s protection and geological park construction has aroused increasing attentions and concerns from China and the world and the geoscience tourism has also been developed and expanded in the geological park constructions.
Geoscience tourism was firstly proposed by a number of scholar in China and has shaped a science and talent-cultivation system after nearly 30-year development. Mr. Tian Mingzhong, Professor in China University of Geoscience (Beijing), considered that geoscience tourism mainly worked on the research on issues in tourism involving geography and basic disciplines and focused on promoting tourism developing to scientific tourism. In his opinion, geoscience tourism experienced four development stages.
First, the embryonic stage. The great decision of reforming and opening up in 1979 has motivated the initial development of tourism. At that time, the geoscience academy took active efforts to serve for the tourism with earth and scientific knowledge, but merely in the exploration stage. After 1985, the national geoscience tourism workshops were successively held across our country and the organizing committee of China Geoscience Tourism Research Society was founded.
Second, the initial stage. A series of academic conferences were held with the establishment of provincial organizations of geoscience tourism and the development and compiling of introduction to geoscience tourism, which played a vital role in cultivating the talents in Chinese tourism.
Third, the growing stage. The China Geoscience Tourism Research Society was established in 1992, and the 30th International Geological Congress was held in Beijing in 1996 and introduced the geoscience tourism to more than 6000 attending geologists from over 120 countries. During this stage, China cultivated the first group of students with master and doctoral degree in geoscience tourism and accumulated theoretical knowledge and talents in geoscience tourism, which laid a foundation for our geological park system and gave the birth of the national geological parks in China.
Fourth, the pioneering stage. China started to apply and construct national geological parks, and the world-class geological parks began to born and grow in China. The China Geoscience Tourism Research Society officially renamed as the Geoscience Tourism and Geopark Research Branch of Geological Society of China in 2005, which served for the tourism in all-around way and paid more attention to serve for sound geopark development. This stage was considered as the milestone for the development of national geological parks in China.
With regard to the route design for geoscience tourism in geological park, Prof. Tian Mingzhong indicated, “it has to reflect the unique features and value of geoscience tourism in this geopark relic and guarantee the security, accessibility, science, distinctiveness, systematicness and sustainability.”
The Development Achievements and Future Direction
According to the introduction to the national geopark construction system from Madam Chen Xiaoning, above all, it is the application and review system. The national geological park carries out the review system of separating the qualification application and granting from designation approval. The application for national geological park requires that firstly the scientific significance of geological relic, secondly the value of science popularization and aesthetics of the geological relic with corresponding publicity, and thirdly a certain scale of geological relic. The procedure mainly experiences three stages including first qualification review, second planning construction and third designation approval. The application unit is reported by the local government of county, municipality and province where the geological park locates every two years, and incorporated into the national geological park planning after access to the qualification with 3-year construction period.
It is known that our geopark construction has gone on a development path for 10 years with rich experience and strengths. China worked together with the UNESCO in 2013 to conduct the training course of national geological park and geological relic’s protection in the African countries.
Madam Chen Xiaoning considered that the main progresses have been achieved in our geopark construction in four aspects. Firstly, the geological relic resources have been effectively preserved. Secondly, the geoscience popularization and research have been promoted. Thirdly, the local economic development has been greatly boosted. Fourthly, the cooperation and exchange at home and abroad have been advanced.
To be specific, geological park construction has effectively improved the preservation of geological relics, economically and intensively utilized the natural resources and provided important place for science research and science knowledge popularization so as to raise the preservation awareness of public ecological environment, develop the tourism with new connotation, build new model of geological work serving for economic society and support local economic and social development.
In the aspect of geological relic’s protection, the geological relics survey and evaluation established the geological relics database, set up the monitoring station in the conservation area, identified the class of conservation areas, strengthened the publicity and education to tourist and surrounding residents to decrease human damages, repaired and restored the landscapes of geological relics to decrease the natural weathering destruction and stipulated a number of local regulations and standards for geological relic’s protection.
It is informed that over 300 geological parks across the country has currently carried out the educational activities of geological science. The geological parks now have become the science research bases of universities and colleges and other research institutions, with over 200 science research and education bases established, over 8000 volunteers recruited, and the industry insiders publish their papers and conduct communication activities, which advances the geoscience popularization and research. All geological parks own their websites with Chinese and English versions, which has strengthened international communication and established friendly relations and cooperation. Sisterhood relations has been established among the geological parks, and up to now, there are 48 pairs of sister geoparks.
Every geological park is obliged to preserve the relic and share experience and achievements together to advance science research and improve the influence and reputation of geological park and geological relics. Build the best model for the regional sustainable development through experiences shared with each other and bring benefits to the local place to achieve common development and all-win situation. (Liu Aiying)
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