VOLUME 28 (3-4)/December 1998 “Geological Heritage of Europe” Dedicated to the memory of George P. Black – First ProGEO President

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The present geoconservation network in Poland comprises 67 nature reserves, about 1600 nature monuments and 80 documentary sites as well as complex sites protected in 22 national parks and 106 landscape parks. Numerous other localities are proposed for legal conservation. According to results of evaluation and selection 84 site-sets and individual sites are designated to the European List of Geosites compiled by lUGS in collaboration with ProGEO Association. This draft list corresponds to the diversity of geological formations and landforms of Poland. Pre-Quaternary structures connected with Caledonian, Variscan and Alpine orogenic cycles are accessible on the surface in Southern Poland while the northern part of the country is covered with Pleistocene deposits. Stratotypes and reference sections of lithostratigraphic units, fossil-bearing deposits. sedimentary and tectonic structures. Karst areas, forms of structural relief as well as the most interesting landforms are the main types of subjects recommended to the Euro-list. The proposed framework is opened to be supplemented and verified.

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Establishment of the National Committee for Geologic Heritage of Serbia and Yugoslavia and its work groups has generated favourable environment and conditions for implementation of an active approach to protection of geologic sites in Yugoslavia. The first assignment of the Work Group for Geomorphology was to select 200 objects, varying in size, spatial distribution and value. The next step was to create a list of geomorphologic objects of international significance, based on numerous criteria. The next phase will include updating of the inventory, its evaluation and ranking, expert and scientific verification and registration in the Registry of Protected Natural Assets of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

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Geotourism is a rapidly increasing industry. In the UK areas such as the Giant’s Causeway on the Antrim Coast, Northern Ireland and the Dorset Coast of Southern England are world famous and visited throughout the year. The intrinsic attraction of these areas is geology whether as part of the landscape or as a resource to more directly enjoy and use. Geotourism offers both opportunity and threat to Earth heritage conservation. There is an established and strong framework for Earth heritage conservation in the UK involving site selection, documentation and safeguard. Central to this process is the need to promote our Earth heritage and its conservation. Gaining awareness and understanding at all levels, from international or national government to local community, will ensure continued support and backing for Earth heritage conservation. Geotourism offers a means for achieving such wider appreciation. The message and the audience must be carefully considered. An holistic approach, one that places geology in a wider context is deemed essential. Geology not only as part of the wider landscape and environment but also as central to our culture and history. Such an approach widens the appreciation of the specialist researcher or geology student and increases the personal relevance to the non-specialist — the wider public. Initiatives such as the identification of "Natural Areas" in England and the development of the Pan-European Biological and landscape Diversity Strategy now start to address these very issues. It is essential, however, that geotourism is achieved in a framework of sustainable development. The needs of the environment, economy and society must be carefully balanced now and in the future. The impact of wider use through increased value must be carefully managed; the economic resource generated through geotourism should contribute to the maintenance and enhancement of the Earth heritage resource; and the needs of society, particularly the local community (not just the geotourist) should be met. The opportunities (and threats) that geotourism brings to Earth heritage conservation are discussed. In particular, the value of wider and integrated promotion is considered in establishing a societal culture that increasingly values our Earth heritage resource and the need to conserve it.

An inventory of the many geosites of the Abruzzo Region is discussed. There are two main geological districts in Abruzzo: the Central Apennine Mesozoic-Cenozoic limestones, and the Flysch basins toward the Adriatic coast. The inventory considers about 200 geosites and is based on a comparative assessment method. Criteria for the selection of geosites are based on the same characteristics proposed by ProGEO Europe and ProGEO Italy.

This report represents a general summary of the knowledges, as well as of the research and promotion activities carried out during the last years in Italy and aimed to the conservation of Geological Heritage. Further scope of this work is to illustrate a range of possible initiatives aimed to include the Italian contribute in the broader international “Geosites” project, promoted by UNESCO and IUGS.

Albania is characterized by a typically alpine accidented mountain relief. About half of the country (48.1 %) belongs to 200-1000 m altitude belt, and 28.5 % belongs to the levels higher than 1000 m. The average altitude is 708 m., i. e., twice more than high average of Europe. As a result the horizontal Smosh coefficient is more than 3 km/km². There are formed some genetical types of relief, and namely, structural-erosional, karstic, river-erosional, erosional-denudated, glacial, seacoast. Geological-tectonical evolution, varied kinds of rocks, climate changes and countinuos action of the atmospheric agents have influenced the formation of different kinds of morphological forms of the relief. In such a manner are formed a number of geomorphological sites of natural aesthetic and scientific importance or with climate-curative features. The very dense river net with common tendence from east to west caused formation of many erosional sites. The large surface of carbonate rocks (6600 km²) and evaporite ones favoured formation of karstic plateaus, fields, holes, and caves. Glacial events have their traces as well, especially on the high mountains of Albania. They form lakes, circus, morains, lagoons, etc. often of geomonumental values.
   Geomorphological sites in Albania are widespread mainly in the Northern Mountain Region (Albanian Alps), central and southern mountain units and less in the hilly-field near the Adriatic sea coast. They are of local, district’s, national and some of Balkan or European importance.

The natural environment is, in people’s mind, out of the cities, and could not belong to the urban environment. It is separated far from the cities. As a consequence, people are very surprised when speaking of geoconservation or geological heritage inside urbanized areas, just in their doorstep. Living in towns and cities does not mean that we have to renounce completely our relation with nature. On the contrary, town-dwellers need an every day contact with nature. This contact improves the quality of human life. Of course in some modern cities this demand will be hard to achieve in short term, but it should be a long-term aim, through a conservation and protection of free spaces policy. Such a policy has to be incorporated in all other policies. The result will be the harmonicus coexistence of nature and city.
   In the case of Pireas, the main international harbour and one of the biggest cities in Greece, the conditions are far from being sufficient concerning the above mentioned problematics. However, Pireas is a very nice city by nature, degraded by men. Few natural sites are left, always under threat regime because of the pressure of other priorities and the high ground prices. The rapid disappearance of sites and consequently the irreversible loss of information is between the geoscientific issues in relation with the modern cities that should be included in the urban geology topics.

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The South-westem part of Sardinia is characterised by exposure of Palaeozoic sediments representing the oldest rocks in Italy. Approximately a quarter of this area, named Sulcis-Iglesiente, is occupied by Cambrian sequences, reaching a visible thickness of over 2000 metres. One third of the Cambrian rocks is constituted of limestones and dolomites, intensely mineralised and karstified, forming one of the most interesting karstic areas of Europe. In the present paper the authors have described 24 karstic geosites of particular interest, of which 16 in the Iglesiente area and the remaining 8 in Sulcis. These can be classified as caves (9), karst landscapes (7), karstic springs (4), paleokarst and mineralization phenomena (4).