THE PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION OF PALEONTOLOGIC FIELD SITES WORLDWIDE

Paleontological field sites across the world are endangered by development, construction, collecting, and vandalism. Data from the field are among the most important available to science, and should be preserved just as fossils themselves are preserved in museums. New techniques, discoveries and interpretation commonly require renewed data from the field. In fact many outstanding field sites have been protected in World Heritage Sites, national parks, monuments and reserves, and state, provincial and local parks, as well as by some private individuals and non-profit organizations. The International Palaeontological Association (IPA), recognizing the scientific, educational and recreational values in fossil field sites, established a PaleoParks Program to protect endangered sites and to catalog and make public information about established parks of any nature that protect fossils in the ground, as well as key places protecting “living fossils”. IPA has 15 aims and goals and a web site for documenting both established and proposed sites. It sponsored meetings and workshops at international meetings over the past five years to discuss these problems, successful solutions, goals, and aims. Examples of successful PaleoParks include the Peking Man (China), Whale (Eocene) Valley (Egypt) and Miguasha (Canada) World Heritage Sites, Le Géopark de Haute-Provence (France), Death Valley and John Day National Parks and Monuments (USA), Guanling Fossil Group Park (China) and various parks, preserves, reserves, and field museums in New Zealand and Thailand. Many more are protected, but sites are being destroyed around the world. These show how, in various ways, fossil sites can support scientific research, educational experiences and recreational activities and their value to the general public as well as vested interests. Promotion of awareness and protection of the sites and their values should be an on-going activity in every country.