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Topical - Geoheritage
Figure 3: EUCC director Albert Salman at the
Tourism Fair in Berlin.
Extending the QC policy label to inland
destinations and cooperation with other
organizations
By adopting the global destination criteria
of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council
(GSTC), QualityCoast is now open for
destinations from all over the world. Under
the umbrella of the ECNC Group, the
Expertise Centre for Biodiversity and Sustainable
Development (www.ecncgroup.eu), a
broader programme is being developed, a
QualityTourism Award and label, that can
Call for case-studies and modules on geoheritage and geodiversity for
EUCC’s databases on coastal education (COASTLEARN) and best practices
Apart from the QC label, the EUCC network developed a database with projects,
best practices, see www.coastalguide.org and educational programmes, see
www.coastlearn.org. The overview of educational programmes and assignments of
COASTLEARN especially attracts many visitors, with over 60,000 unique visitors
in 2011.
Within the EFG - PE Geological Heritage, we have been regularly discussing the
need for databases that promote best practices in geoheritage and geodiversity.
Natural England, for example, developed such a database for quarrying. To give
impetus to the idea, gain experience and have a bigger public looking at our
materials, we think it is sensible to start a cooperation with EUCC and try to apply
for best practices projects in coastal management with respect to geodiversity
and geoheritage. The format will follow the EUCC format. An alternative or additional
database is the OURCOAST database that was prepared by Arcadis and
EUCC, under contract for the European Commission, see http://ec.europa.eu/ourcoast.
If you are interested, submit a short description of a best practice example(s) – 1
A4 page maximum (see websites for proper formats) - through info.efg@eurogeologists.eu
under the heading: Coastal Best Practice project or COASTLEARN.
be acquired by all destinations, coastal and
non-coastal. Furthermore, discussions with
other organizations such as Blue Flag, EFG,
EGN and GGN are taking place on how to
improve cooperation.
Geoheritage and geodiversity in the QualityCoast
/ QualityTourism label
In 2012, with support of the EFG board,
PE Geological Heritage established a small
working group of six persons that checked
the questionnaire of the QualityCoast label
for improvement re geoheritage and geodiversity
policies. It proposed a number of
suggestions to the QualityCoast team on
how to improve the questionnaire for geodiversity
and geoheritage purposes. Minor
adaptations only were needed in the nature,
cultural heritage and tourism sections. New
applications will be screened for geoheritage
and geodiversity, around January 2013. For
the screening we will need an extra group of
experts in coastal geoheritage and geodiversity,
from those regions and countries that
did submit a QualityCoast application, and
that will submit a QualityTourism application
in the near future. EFG’s Board and PE
team on Geological Heritage have decided
to support its development.
Further reading
http://www.eucc.net
http://www.qualitycoast.info
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