Background

Nature Conservation subjects deserve an increasing importance in our Society. The demographic growth, the urban pressure in certain areas, the uncontrolled use of natural resources, are examples of the threats that are confronting Nature. The Nature Conservation policies achieve additional importance due to their implication in projects and actions promoting sustainable development.

Nature Conservation must be holistic and should consider, above all, the conservation of geological and biological values. Since it is not possible to implement this concept in all the territory, certain areas were chosen: the protected areas. These areas do not underestimate the cultural and social aspects of the population that live inside these territories. The National Park idea is an American concept introduced with the creation of the Yellowstone National Park in 1872. In Portugal the protected areas system is constituted by more than 35 units integrating National and Natural Parks, Natural Reserves, Natural Monuments, etc.

The need of biodiversity conservation, one of the Natural Heritage components, is already well established in our society. Nevertheless, the importance of the other component – the geodiversity – has been neglected. The geodiversity concept is rather new, introduced only in the beginning of the nineties. It corresponds to the variety of geological environments, phenomena and active processes generating landscapes, rocks, minerals, fossils, soils and other surface deposits constituting the bases for live on Earth. Unfortunately, among all the national and international policies related with nature conservation, geodiversity is always underestimated when compared to biodiversity. It is easier to involve the society in the protection of certain endangered species rather than in the conservation of a fossil-rich outcrop with a few million years old. The unanimated character of geological heritage and the lack of awareness of geology among the majority of the society contributed to the lower popularity of geodiversity in contrast to biodiversity.

The inventory, characterization and interpretation of the geological heritage are recent issues. The 1^st International Symposium on Geological Heritage was held in Digne (France) in 1991. The European Association for the Conservation of the Geological Heritage – ProGEO – was created in 1993. The 30^th International Geological Congress, held in China in 1996, organized for the first time a geoconservation session. In the same year, the International Union of Geological Sciences created the Global Geosites Working Group to promote the inventory of geosites with global relevance. Nevertheless, some countries had already begun national initiatives, namely the eastern European countries. The first scientific event related with geological heritage in Portugal took place in 1998 during the 5^th National Geological Congress. After this event, other initiatives took place in order to characterize the Portuguese geological heritage. 

We hope that this proposal for the creation of a post-graduation course in geoconservation could be attractive both for foreign and national students, either for young graduates or for experienced technicians with non-geological background.