IV International Symposium ProGEO
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| We congratulate the organizing committee on achieving the presence of participants from more than thirty countries, from different continents, and in their promotion of the sharing of experiences and good practice, allowing us to learn from each other; We urge, as at the last International Geoconservation Symposium, that, due to the fact that many geosites of paramount importance continue to be at risk in numerous countries, national authorities should pursue strategies in order to implement Recommendation Rec(2004)3 on Conservation of the Geological Heritage and Areas of Special Geological Interest of the Council of Europe; We stress the importance of the integration of geoconservation issues in school curricula, as a contribution for the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014); We endorse all local, national and wider development of Geoparks, which must be based on sound and sustainable protection of the geosite resource; We fully endorse and support the recent developments undertaken in Portugal by the national ProGEO Group with the collaboration of other national institutions, those efforts resulting in the definition of geological frameworks of international and national relevance; We recommend that both Portuguese and Spanish specialists should renew efforts to achieve the definition of geosite frameworks of Iberian relevance; ultimately linking this work with that in other south European countries; We recommend the Portuguese Official Authorities, namely the Nature Conservation Institute, to urgently integrate geoconservation into national strategies. Also it is an essential requisite that this Institute increases the geological expertise of its technical staff, in order to better assure the conservation of the Portuguese geological heritage inside and outside protected areas. University of Minho, 16 September 2005 |