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UNESCO chair on Geoparks and Sustainable Development of insular and coastal areas will support better understanding and capacity building of local stakeholders in islands and coastal areas on how a UNESCO Global Geopark uses its geological heritage, in connection with all other aspects of the area’s natural and cultural heritage, to enhance awareness and understanding of key issues facing society, such as using our earth’s resources sustainably, mitigating the effects of climate change and reducing natural disasters-related risks. Their bottom-up approach of combining conservation with sustainable development while involving local communities is becoming increasingly popular. Such an approach is currently an integral part of the management and education throughout the region.

Thus the UNESCO chair on Geoparks and Sustainable Development of insular and coastal areas will contribute through its activities to the creation of innovative local enterprises and new jobs on heritage management (protection, conservation, interpretation and monitoring), tourism related activities as well as on local products enhancement. High quality training courses is stimulated as new sources of revenue are generated towards the development and the implementation of sustainable tourism activities and new/improved local products linked with geo-diversity especially