A course aimed at nature guides wishing to become guides for the Sesia Val Grande UNESCO Global Geopark

Registration is now open for the refresher course aimed at nature interpreters or environmental hiking guides accredited by the Piedmont Region. The course has been devised by the Sesia Val Grande Geopark Association in collaboration with FORMONT and is designed to train guides who will work within the Sesia Val Grande UNESCO Global Geopark.
Included on the list of UNESCO Global Geoparks since 2013, the Geopark covers an area of 2,202 square kilometres, at altitudes ranging from 190 to 4,554 metres above sea level at Punta Gnifetti, and encompasses 4 Piedmontese provinces and 106 municipalities, with a total population of 190,000 inhabitants; Since 2017, management of the Sesia Val Grande Geopark has been entrusted to the association of the same name, the Val Grande National Park and the Management Body for the Protected Areas of the Sesia Valley.
“The idea of offering a specific course on the Sesia Val Grande UNESCO Global Geopark,” emphasises the Association’s President, Edoardo Dellarole, “forms part of the Association’s plan for the promotion and enjoyment of the area. In addition to scientific activities, we have, in fact, gradually increased the number of initiatives aimed at raising awareness and promoting tourism in the Geopark and the surrounding areas.”

“However,” continues Dellarole, “as the Sesia Val Grande UNESCO Global Geopark is a very complex subject to communicate to a non-specialist audience, we have identified a need to provide nature guides with tools to deepen their knowledge and to help them communicate this extraordinary heritage.”
The course will be recognised as a professional development programme for qualified nature guides and will therefore count towards fulfilment of the training requirements set out in regional legislation; in addition to the certificate of attendance for the refresher course, participants will also receive the ‘Sesia Val Grande UNESCO Global Geopark Guide’ certification, issued by the Association itself.
For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that the award of the official and exclusive title of ‘Guide of the Sesia Val Grande UNESCO Global Geopark’ does not entail the establishment of any employment relationship with the Association, but will be valid for inclusion in the list of collaborators whom the Association may call upon to organise guided excursions, manage educational projects and other initiatives promoted by the Geopark. The course will take place between February and March 2019 at FORMONT’s Valsesia Operations Centre, and the theory sessions will be complemented by a number of excursions within the area.
The programme will feature a number of distinguished lecturers, including Silvano Sinigoi, a professor at the University of Trieste and one of the ‘discoverers’ of the Valsesia Supervolcano, Marco Giardino and Michele Freppaz, professors at the University of Turin, and Filippo Camerlenghi, a science communicator.
Participants will be provided with maps and other teaching materials relevant to the course and useful for carrying out fieldwork. Entry requirements for the course are possession of a qualification as a Nature Guide or Environmental Hiking Guide issued by the Piedmont Region; basic geological knowledge, as set out in the Piedmont Region’s qualification programme, is deemed to have been acquired.
Information Sheet

INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION
FORMONT Valsesia
Piazza G. Calderini 10 – 13019 Varallo (VC)
Tel. 0163 564420 – Email:cfp-varallo@formont.it