8th UNESCO Global Geoparks Conference

Madonna di Campiglio and the Brenta Dolomites provided the setting for the 8th International Conference of UNESCO Global Geoparks, held from 8 to 14 September 2018, dedicated to “Geoparks and sustainable development”.

Geoparks are areas recognised by UNESCO for their extraordinary geological heritage, which they work to conserve, and for the enhancement of their territories with a view to promoting sustainable development. The motto of the geoparks is “Celebrating the planet’s heritage, supporting local communities”, and the topics covered at this global conference included tourism and sustainable development, education, communication, climate change and geological risk, as well as presentations by aspiring geoparks.
The event, held within the Adamello Brenta Geopark, was chaired by Nikolas Zouros, president of the Global Geoparks Network, and was attended by 850 delegates, 1,000 participants from every continent, 64 countries, and featured 411 scientific papers.
The Sesia Val Grande Geopark – represented by Tullio Bagnati and Ilaria Selvaggio, director and guide of the Geopark, and Marco Giardino, professor of Geomorphology at the University of Turin – officially received the certificate marking its first revalidation for the period 2018 – 2021. On this occasion, 13 geoparks joined the global network.
An exhibition – which will become a travelling exhibition – dedicated to the intangible heritage of the Geoparks, entitled ‘Stone made object’, accompanied the Conference; as a testament to our region, tiles made from Rima’s artificial marble and an old fragment from Milan Cathedral, made of Candoglia marble, were on display.
For many participants, however, the conference was also an opportunity to explore our region, and so: from 8 to 10 September, a group of Australians, Indonesians and Russians, accompanied by Silvano Sinigoi, travelled up to the Passo dei Salati and the Mosso Scientific Institute before visiting Monte Sant’Antonio and the supervolcano area at Prato Sesia; on Sunday 16th, an American volcanologist and emeritus scientist from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), after visiting Cannobio and Verbania, toured the supervolcano area; on Tuesday 18th, a Norwegian delegation, which is working to establish a new geopark in Norway, visited the Geopark headquarters in Vogogna in Val Grande, followed by the Prato Sesia geosite and the Infopoint in Valsesia, concluding their tour at the Torre delle Castelle in Gattinara.
These are undoubtedly significant achievements for our organisation, which is successfully attracting scholars from all over the world to the region and will be at the centre of the European Conference of UNESCO Geoparks in 2021.