Interdisciplinary Seminar:
Education for Sustainable development
Convener: Eliane Didier, France

The Importance of Understanding Geodiversity and Geoconservation for Sustainable Development
Cynthia Burek, British Federation of Women Graduates

The Environment is one leg of sustainable development and its conservation is paramount to the future of society. However there is one area of conservation which is often overlooked and that is geoconservation. Biological conservation and biodiversity are well understood following the treaty of biological conservation developed and signed at the Rio Summit in 1992. Thus they are driven by legislation. However the new concepts of geodiversity and geoconservation are rarely taught in education, are often omitted in policy documents at all levels and are driven not by legislation but by the voluntary movement at the local level. The fact that geodiversity underpins biodiversity is not really understood. These terms are explained in detail and it is shown how geodiversity affects every person’s life. The development of Local Geodiversity Action Plans is explained and how this can also inform conservation at a local and regional level. The Cheshire region LGAP is given as an example of how sustainable development can be built into this. Thus conserving geodiversity is also important in the whole debate about sustainable development.

Professor Cynthia Burek, Professor of Geoconservation and Deputy Director of the Centre for Science Communication at the University of Chester, lectures there and at the Open University in the Biological Sciences and Geography departments. She is ‘a geologist by training and an environmental conservationalist by inclination’. In addition to her PhD in Geology, she holds an MSc in Information Technology. A Fellow of the Geological Society, she is a Committee member and past Chairperson of the UK Regionally Important Geological Sites. She is a member of the British Federation of Women graduates Awards Committee.