At 11 A.M. on November 17 in France , UNESCO officially approved its new “International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme (IGGP) and relevant charters and guidelines in the 38^th General Conference and included all existing international geoparks in the Programme as UNESCO's global geoparks. which further exemplified UNESCO’s attention and commitment to protection and sustainable utilization of geological heritages with international value and significance and also symbolized official establishment of the new identify of “UNESCO global geopark”.   

　　As early as 2011, at the request of member states, in its General Conference, UNESCO required its Director General to negotiate with member states to discuss the possibility that existing global geoparks were proposed to be formalized and were changed into those included in UNESCO’s global geoparks programme. To this end, relevant discussions continued until geopark working group was established. Through concrete efforts of parties concerned, discussion and negotiation were made in 7 meeting in 2 years and sustainable breakthroughs were obtained. The working group proposed the final suggestion on development of international geoscience and geoparks programme which was approved to the 196^th Meeting of UNESCO Executive Board. Then, the resolution was submitted to the 38^th General Conference and obtained final approval.

　　To echo UNESCO’s initiative to establish “global geopark network”, China began to declare and build global geopark since 2003. In 2004, supported by UNESCO, the First Global Geopark Conference was held in Beijing and 17 memebers of European Geoparks Network and 8 geoparks in China jointly established Global Geoparks Network (GGN). As of the end of October 2015, 120 members of the global geoparks network have covered 33 countries and regions in the world. At the same time, through years of practice and exploration, China ’s national geoparks grogram has been carried out in full swing, transferring from establishment of natural reserve for geological heritages with simple protection task to establishment of properly developed geoparks with focus on protection. Totally 186 national geoparks have been approved to be set up successively (of which Beijing accounts for 8) and cover 31 provinces and cities and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. With 33 global geoparks (of which Beijing accounts for 2), China ranks first in the world.

　　Now, as a new means of resources utilization, geoparks have shown its increasing and huge comprehensive benefits in terms of conservation of geological heritages and ecological environment, local economic development, solutions to employment of the public, scientific research, literacy program, improvement of original scenic spots and infrastructures, international exchange, and improvement of quality of population, fully demonstrated geoparks' values and concepts, made contributions to ecological civilization construction and local cultural inheritance, and accumulated experiences and established a foundation for development of national geopark system, thus becoming a benchmark of natural ecology conservation, a model of ecological civilization practice, a name card of China, and a engine to drive international cooperation. In terms of building of geoparks, China has made great achievements attracting the world’s attention and formed its unique geopark management mode, which offers useful experience to other countries for their geopark management. Therefore, an officer of UNESCO praised that China had made pioneering efforts to facilitate establishment of geoparks. In 2013, China cooperated with UNESCO to hold training sessions regarding conservation of geological heritages and establishment of geoparks in 12 countries in Africa, which shows role of China ’s geoparks in local sustainable development strategy and vigorously boosts scientific, technological and cultural exchange between China and Africa.

　　By taking this conference as a jumping-off point and an opportunity, as for geoparks, China will continue to give priority to conservation enhancement, positively improve systems and mechanism, improve supervision and management, deepen and facilitate international cooperation, intensify efforts to guidance on public engagement, and fully play unique advantages and roles as international leader and model of our geoparks, thus to make contributions to accelerating ecological civilization construction and building a beautiful China.

　　It is reported that, the conference coincided with the 70^th anniversary of UNESCO. With heads from 18 countries participating in presidential forum held during the conference to discuss future development of UNESCO, the General Conference is one with the most heads of states. Its opening ceremony was chaired by Hao Ping, as the Chairman of the 37^th General Meeting and Vice-minister of the Ministry of Education. Significant plans of the next biennium will be discussed in the General Conference and ministers of education from various countries will research and prepare the roadmap to implement UN 2030 development agenda.

 

November 18, 2015