[O-06] [JJ] Geoparks in Japan -Lesson to be learned from the failure-

[O06-06] Necessary attitude to enforcement of Geopark activities

★Invited papers

*Marekazu Ohno¹ (1.Unzen Volcanic Area Geopark Promotion Office)

Keywords:Unzen Volcanic Area UNESCO Global Geopark, Sustainable development, Local communities

Main purpose of Geopark activities is sustainable development of local communities because local heritages existing in the communities are conserved if the communities are maintained. Stable financial system is necessary to maintain the local communities and its stability is ensured by activation of economic activities with expansion of domestic demand and with geotourism activities in the territory. Guarantees of local (geological, biological, historical and cultural) “heritages” are carried out by the continuous researches by researchers and/or scientists and the values obtained by them are popularized to inhabitants through educational activities. These activities (conservation, researches, education, tourism and economic activities), therefore, should be enforced positively with relevance, necessity and systematically by organizations or stakeholders that join in the geopark activities. These Geopark’s activities will bring construction of sustainable local communities and conservation of local heritages in the territory.
If local people who belong to organizations relating to geopark activities (inhabitants, administrative staff, researchers etc.) understand a perspective of geopark activities and recognize their position in the perspective, geopark activities would be performed in the territory with good mood. In order to keep mutual understandings among related organizations to geopark, it is necessary the system to keep motivations of inhabitants, administrative staff, and researchers etc through sharing information by regular meetings and network.
The remarks mentioned here is not special but a matter of course. If local people who are concerned geopark activities do not understand what geopark activities are clearly and find out their significances, it would be difficult to construct a sustainable local communities and conservation of local heritages using the system of Geopark. I would like to introduce the situation of Unzen Volcanic Area UNESCO Global Geopark after receiving an Yellow Card from Japan Geopark Committee in the presentation.