IUGS GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE SITES: THE “FIRST 100” A SUCCESS AND NOW FOR THE “SECOND 100”

The International Commission on Geoheritage (ICG) launched its IUGS Geological Heritage Sites endeavor with the announcement of the “First 100” in Zumaia, Spain on October 28, 2022. This effort identifies and recognizes extraordinary geological sites, which are defined as being exceptional representatives of geological processes and features that are used as a global reference or are sites that were fundamental to the development of the science of geology.

Selection of the “First 100” involved 500 experts from all disciplines from 56 countries and 16 international scientific organizations. National and thematic groups of these experts generated site proposals and evaluated and scored them with a simple methodology based on expert´s knowledge. The final selection for the “First 100” was made based on the scoring of the evaluations and considering a well balanced geographic and thematic representation. Fifty sites were postponed to be evaluated again for the Second 100. The IUGS 60th anniversary event at Zumaia (Basque Coast UNESCO Global Geopark) included the release of the book “The First 100 IUGS Geological Heritage Sites” and culminated on the beach with the formal announcement of the “First 100” and the adoption of the IUGS Zumaia declaration. All the information related to this important event is accessible at the new website www.iugs-geoheritage.org, which had over 40.000 visitors from 187 nations during its first 10 months. The book can be downloaded for free and a hard copy can be purchased through the website.

The IUGS Executive Committee and IGCP-731 provided initial funding for the project which attained immediate success within 12 months of its launch. The high standards defined, clear and simple rules for the operation of the program with a strict schedule, and a strong and fast commitment from many IUGS commissions and affiliated organizations are among the key reasons that explain this important and long demanded achievement.

The ICG has already launched the process to select the “Second 100” IUGS Geological Heritage Sites. They will be announced at the 37^th International Congress in Korea in August 2024, when the “Second 100” book will also be released. 20 international organizations and national representatives from 57 countries are involved in the selection and evaluation of sites.