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EFG Stand at the European Commission’s
Green Week 2012 “Every drop counts”
Patricia Cortés, Hanneke van den Ancker* and John Gordon
Water shapes our landscapes and
their geology, geomorphology,
soils and biodiversity. The role
of geodiversity in the EU water policy
framework should be enhanced. Better
integration of geodiversity and geoconservation
in existing water policies, measures
and decision frameworks will help Europe
to find more sustainable solutions that in
the long term will be less costly. At the same
time, it will help to protect Europe’s geoheritage
and safeguard the quality of the living
environment of European citizens, while
mitigating risks such flooding, biodiversity
loss and soil loss. The European Federation
of Geologists participated in the European
Commission’s Green Week, 22-25 May,
2012, with a stand at the Exhibition: “Every
Drop Counts”.
This year’s theme of the 12th Annual
Conference on European Environment
Policy was “Water”. This is the largest
environmental conference organized by
the EU and seeks to raise awareness about
protection of the environment. It provides
a unique opportunity for discussion and
exchange of experiences and good practice,
since the audience is made up of officials
from all levels of government, local,
regional and national, as well as non-governmental
organizations, scientists, technicians
and representatives of companies in
the environmental sector within the European
Union and other countries. Every year
some thousands of international experts in
environmental management meet during
the event.
The 52 stands at the Exhibition associated
with the Conference included green
business solutions, NGO activities, local
and regional authorities, and European and
international bodies. Debates, presentations
and stands reviewed actions in water
policy, the uses of this valuable resource
and the elimination of water pollution. The
presentations and documents of the conference
can be downloaded here.
* Coordinator Geoheritage NL and Coordinator
of the EFG Panel on Geological
Heritage, info@geoheritage.nl
An EU Policy response to the Water
Framework Directive, the “Blueprint
to Safeguard Europe’s Water”, has been
developed to ensure good quality water in
sufficient quantities for all legitimate uses:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/blueprint/
index_en.htm. It will be issued in winter 2012.
EFG, together with five other European
earth sciences and related organizations,
organized a stand under the theme, “Water
shapes most of Europe’s geological heritage
and landscapes”. The main objective of the
stand was to draw attention to the fact that
sustainable water management should take
regional geodiversity into account. Standard
solutions for water problems are often based
on models that do not consider geology,
geomorphology, soils and history of the
landscapes. In the models, the subsoil is
frequently treated as a uniform medium.
Furthermore, EU water policy should
include the natural character of water
bodies as part of our geological heritage.
The handout “Geodiversity, an omission
in EU policy” summarizes these messages
and links to other EU legislation in which
geodiversity can contribute to sustainable
management. It can be downloaded here.
At the stand we met with officials, members
of NGOs and the public. Everybody
we spoke with seemed to agree with our
messages. EU officials mentioned that they
are working towards such improvements,
as suggested in our stand, but part of the
problem is that these issues are difficult
to standardize and scientists as yet have
not come forward with practical solutions.
The stand was prepared by the coordinator
of the EFG Panel of Experts (PE) on Soil
Protection and Geological Heritage, Ms
Hanneke van den Ancker, with Dr. John
Gordon and Miss Patricia Cortés, and supported
by the coordinator of the EFG PE on
Hydrogeology, Dr Marco Petitta.
The stand was co-organized by six European
organizations that care for Geodiversity
and Geoheritage: EFG (European
Federation of Geologists), European
Geoparks, EUCC (The Costal and Marine
Figure 1: EFG stand with Patricia Cortés Polo,
Office Assistant, Dr. Isabel Fernandez, EFG
Executive Director and Dr. John Gordon, University
of St Andrews, Scotland.
Figure 2: Patrycja Czerniak, EUCC-Integrated
Coastal Zone Management and Hanneke van
den Ancker.
Union), IAG (International Association of
Geomorphologists), EFS (European Federation
of Speleologists) and ProGEO (The
European Association for the Conservation
of the Geological Heritage):
• EFG: a non-governmental European
umbrella organization of 21 national
earth sciences associations, whose
main objectives are to contribute to
a safer and more sustainable use of
the natural environment, to protect
and inform the public and to promote
more responsible exploitation
of natural resources.
• European Geoparks Network: comprises
50 Geoparks in 19 European
countries, that promote sustainable
regional development by using that
territory’s geological heritage, primarily
through the development of
geotourism.
• EUCC: an association with 2700 mem-
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