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The Geopark initiative is booming! Spectacular geo-morphological landscapes and regions with special geological features or mining sites, notably promoted through "Geoparks", have proven to be excellent tools to educate the public about "Earth Sciences". Moreover, Geoparks can also be shown to be areas for recreation and significant sustainable economic development through geotourism. More and more national and international stakeholders are engaged in projects related to "Geo-conservation", "Geoparks" and "Geotourism" and have thus positively influenced the general perception of modern Earth sciences, remarkably.
The "International Year of Planet Earth" (IYPE) also served as a strong platform for the launch of several international initiatives, and often provided the "label" for many countries to create new ‘Geoparks’ as a generic earth sciences vehicle for global geology.
In order to develop further the understanding of earth sciences in general and to elucidate the importance of earth sciences for Society it is envisioned to launch a new geo-scientific book series Geoparks of the World: Development and Management under the professional supervision of Springer, in partnership with IUGS and IGU. The new book series is considered to be complementary to the new Springer-Journal Geoheritage.
