The National Geological Park

The National Geological Park

National Geoparks of the people's Republic of China are approved by experts organized by Chinese administrative departments and officially approved by the State Forestry and grassland administration.

China's national geoparks are mainly composed of geological relics with national special geological scientific significance and high aesthetic value,

And the integration of other natural landscape and human landscape constitutes a unique natural area.

The construction of China's geoparks is a work initiated by the Ministry of natural resources in 2000 in response to the initiative of UNESCO to establish a "World Geopark network system" and to implement the task of the State Council on the protection of geological relics

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By March 2020, the State Forestry and grassland administration and the former Ministry of land and resources have officially named 220 National Geoparks, granted 57 National Geoparks, and approved the establishment of more than 300 provincial geoparks.

Development history

Geological relics are natural products formed, developed and left behind by various internal and external dynamic geological processes in the long geological history of the earth's formation and evolution. They are not only an important part of natural resources, but also precious and non renewable geological natural heritage.

In 1985, China established the first national geological nature reserve - "Middle Upper Proterozoic geological section" (Jixian County, Tianjin). Since then, the establishment of geological heritage protection area has been developed to a certain extent. In November 1985, the Ministry of Mines of the people's Republic of China held the "first working conference on Regionalization and scientific investigation of geological nature reserves" in Changsha. The participants inspected Wulingyuan scenic spot. In view of the unique and beautiful geological landscape of Wulingyuan sandstone peak forest, the proposal of establishing "Wulingyuan National Geological Park" was put forward, which formed a certain influence in China. In July 1987, the Ministry of Mines issued the "notice on the establishment of geological nature reserves (Trial)" with the document "dif No. 311", which put forward a way of taking geoparks as reserves. In May 1995, the Ministry of Mines promulgated the regulations on the protection and management of geological relics, which further included geoparks as a way of geological relics protection. However, for various reasons, 86 geological nature reserves (including 12 national level) established before 1999 were not named after geoparks.

In 1972, the United Nations held a "human environment conference" in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. After the conference, the "Declaration on human environment" was issued, which opened the prelude of world environmental protection. In the same year, the 17th General Conference of UNESCO was held in Paris, and the Convention on the protection of world cultural and natural heritage was adopted. The purpose of the World Heritage Committee is to include the sites with world protection significance in this field into the world heritage list, protect them through international cooperation, and establish the World Heritage Committee. Thus, the global protection of natural and cultural heritage started. By the end of the 34th World Heritage conference in August 2010, the number of States parties to the Convention on the protection of world cultural and natural heritage has increased to 187, and 21 new world heritage sites have been approved, which has increased the total number of world heritage sites included in the world heritage list to 911. According to the latest statistics, there are 704 world natural heritage sites, 180 world cultural heritage sites and 27 natural and cultural heritage sites in the world Cultural heritage.

Establishment plan

In 1989, UNESCO, IUGS, IGCP and IUCN established the "global geological and paleontological sites list" in Washington, D.C., with the purpose of selecting suitable geological sites as candidates for inclusion in the world heritage list. In 1996, it was renamed "geological scenic spot plan". In 1997, the general assembly of the United Nations adopted the plan of "promoting the formation of a global network of scenic spots with special geological phenomena" proposed by UNESCO, that is, to select representative and special areas from the recommended geological heritage sites of various countries (regions) to be included in the geoparks, with the purpose of achieving sustainable social and economic development in these areas. UNESCO geoparks was proposed at the 156th UNESCO standing committee meeting in April 1999. The goal is to build 500 world geoparks in the world, of which 20 are planned to be built every year. China is one of the pilot countries of the world geoparks program.

China's national geoparks are approved by experts organized by the state administrative department and officially approved by the Ministry of natural resources. By September 2017, China has approved the establishment of 206 National Geoparks.

Geological relics

Geological relics are the precious wealth of a country. Every citizen has the right and obligation to protect them. The Ministry of natural resources (formerly the Ministry of Geology and mineral resources, the Ministry of land and resources) is responsible for the supervision and management of them. Before 1984, the work was only part of the protection of other types of nature reserves; after 1984, the former Ministry of Geology and mineral resources started to carry out research work in a planned way, organized the formulation of plans and regulations, and put the work on the right track. In 1987 and 1995, the Ministry of Geology and mineral resources promulgated the regulations on the establishment of geological nature reserves and the regulations on the protection and management of geological relics 》。 Since the establishment of the first national geological nature reserve, the Middle Upper Proterozoic stratigraphic section (Jixian County, Tianjin), in 1985, the establishment of the geological heritage reserve has developed rapidly. Since its establishment, the Ministry of land and resources has organized the drafting of relevant geological heritage management measures and held relevant meetings to promote the progress of the work. In China, in order to cooperate with the establishment of world geoparks, the Ministry of land and resources established the national geological heritage protection (geoparks) leading group and the National Geological Heritage (geoparks) evaluation committee in August 2000, and formulated relevant application and evaluation methods.

The paleontological fossil group preserved in the strata at the bottom of the Wayao formation in the Geopark is one of the most important paleontological fossil groups newly discovered in China in recent years. It is a wonderful Triassic marine ecosystem composed of marine reptiles, fish, conodonts, crinoids, ammonoids, bivalves, gastropods, brachiopods and plants. There are abundant fossil fossils in the park, most of which can be seen on the outcrops in the field, with complete individuals and exquisite forms, which have high aesthetic value and ornamental value. In addition, the geological landscapes such as stratigraphic sections, sedimentary structures, geological landforms and geological disaster traces can be seen everywhere in the Park, which is a rare ideal place for Geoscience tourism and popular science education Place. Most of the fossils of Guanling biota are not only large in size, but also beautiful in shape. There are many kinds, large quantity and extremely complete biological fossils in the distribution, which are extremely rare in the whole province and even in the whole country. They have the following characteristics: first, they are rich in resources and have a high density of distribution strata. In the stratum only about 10 meters thick, there are a large number of paleontological fossils. Many paleontological fossils are preserved in layers, some of which are almost entirely composed of fossils. Fossil crinoids and various species have been discovered. There are hundreds of "dragon fossils", but they are only a small part of the total amount of Guanling biota, less than one in ten thousand. Second, there are many categories. Ten classes of Guanling biota have been recorded. Nine of them are newly named genera and species. Third, most of the biological fossils can be seen by naked eyes, especially the crinoids and marine reptiles, which are not only large in size, but also beautiful in shape and highly ornamental.

Building meaning

Basic overview

The establishment of national geopark is aimed at protecting geological heritage resources and promoting the sustainable development of social economy, following the principle of "developing in protection and protecting in development", according to the regulations on the protection and management of geological heritage, and under the guidance of relevant government departments. Article 8 of the regulations on the protection and management of geological relics clearly points out that for geological relics with international, domestic and regional typical significance, national, provincial and county-level geological relics protection areas, geological relics protection sections, geological relics protection points or geoparks can be established.

Protection of geological relics

The effective way to protect geological relics is to mobilize the strength of the whole society to develop and utilize geological relics resources reasonably and scientifically. Combining the establishment of geoparks with the development of regional economy, and promoting the development of tourism through the establishment of geoparks, the geological heritage resources will become a new growth point of local economic development. In order to protect the geological relics, it is necessary to promote the local economic development, increase the employment of the residents and improve the living standards of the local people.

Advocating science

The establishment of geoparks is an important measure to advocate science and eliminate superstition. The main task of geopark construction is to popularize Geoscience Knowledge, publicize materialist world outlook and fight against feudal superstition. There should be not only humanistic interpretation of natural landscape, but also geological scientific interpretation, so as to make Geopark more interesting and scientific.

Popularizing knowledge

For the whole society, geoparks are the cradle for scientists to grow up and the base for scientific exploration. For the majority of young people and the public, geoparks are a classroom for popularizing geological science knowledge and enlightening education.

Chinese PinYin : Guo Jia Di Zhi Gong Yuan