Putting Geoheritage Conservation on All Agendas

The paper, given as the keynote speech at the ProGEO Reykjavík Seminar 2015, focuses on how geodiversity and specifically geoheritage conservation can become an integral part of the nature and wider environmental and sustainable development agendas. It examines why geodiversity currently plays a minor role compared to biodiversity at all geographical scales, and why, in particular, geoheritage conservation in protected areas is a poor relation of protecting species and habitats and cultural landscapes. Suggestions on what the geocommunity should be doing about improving the situation are made throughout the paper at the global, regional, and local scales. These include finally agreeing on the definitions of key terms, working with all stakeholders, especially those in the wider nature community, improving the language of communication, and exploiting the new thinking on “conserving nature’s stage.”