January 26, 2016

UNESCO Geoparks and SDGs

Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2016 10:35:17 +0900
 On 23rd, UNESCO Geopark forum was held in Hakusan (site for Japanese Geopark and BR). Mr. McKeever (chief of GGN), Mr. Matsuura (former director general of UNESCO) and I (Japanese MAB)had plenary talks. All of us referred to SDGs. I am interested in McKeever's talk that he discouraged double designation, even with world (natural/cultural) heritage. He said, economic performance of geopark is more than world heritage. I talked, "WH SHOULD be doubly designated with BR because WH just protects core area but BR creates sustainable development in transistion areas.
I also said, MAB as UNESCO's programme support all 17 SGDs. I expect the same role in UNESCO geoparks. When I searched "Millennium Development Goals" and "geopark", much fewer URLs are hit by google than "Millennium Development Goals" and "biosphere reserve".
I uploaded a similar comment on Asahi Newspaper Open Journal WEB RONZA (in Japanese)