Bottom-up strategy for the use of geological heritage by local communities: Approach in the “Litoral del Biobío” Mining Geopark project (Chile)
Introduction
For almost two decades, the territorial development model now called UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGps) has been implemented in different countries worldwide. These territories highlight the value of geological heritage, in a holistic approach that encompasses the remaining natural (biotic) and cultural (tangible and intangible) heritage, in a sustainable development strategy for the benefit of their communities (Zouros, 2016). The objectives pursued by this international initiative include the protection and conservation of the geological heritage of representative territories, the development of local communities based on geotourism and education promoting the knowledge of the natural and cultural heritage.
This initiative was triggered in 2000 thanks to the cooperation and association of four European territories from Greece, France, Spain and Germany (UNESCO, 2015). Subsequently, in 2004, 17 European and 8 Chinese geoparks joined to create the Global Geoparks Network (GGN, 2017) under the auspices of UNESCO, to enable national initiatives to contribute to and benefit from membership of a global network of exchange and cooperation (Zouros, 2016). On 17th November 2015, during the 38th General Conference of UNESCO, the 195 Member States unanimously ratified the creation of the new designation "UNESCO Global Geoparks", as part of the new International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme (IGGP).
Currently, this network comprises 147 UGGps in 41 different countries, mostly concentrated in Europe and Asia. In Latin America, there are six countries with territories designated as UGGps: i) Brazil, represented by Araripe UGGp since 2006; ii) Uruguay, with the Grutas del Palacio UGGp integrated into the network in 2013; iii) Mexico, represented by the Mixteca Alta UGGp and the Comarca Minera UGGp, both of them recognized by UNESCO on 2015; and since 2019, iv) Chile, represented by the UGGp Kütralkura; v) Peru, with Colca and Volcanes de Andagua UGGp, and vi) Ecuador, with the Imbabura UGGp (UNESCO, 2019). These territories currently constitute the Network of Geoparks of Latin America and the Caribbean (GeoLAC). Other regional networks are the European Geoparks Network (EGN) and the Asia Pacific Geoparks Network (APGN), and all of them are promoted and supported by the GGN Association.
In the Chilean national context, in addition to the recent designation of the Kütralkura UGGp, four territories are in the project phase: Cajón del Maipo, Puchuncaví, Valle de Petorca, and Litoral del Biobío, with the latter being the focus of this research. Some of the requirements to be designated as UGGp are the following: i) to have a geological heritage of international value; ii) to have a structure for the integrated management of the territory which implies from the beginning the participation of its communities with a bottom-up approach; iii) to have a high visibility of the Geopark brand in the region; and iv) to promote an articulation with networks and cooperation at local, national and international levels (UNESCO, 2019).
The holistic vision for the development of these territories requires management structures with an effective capacity to act in the areas. This implies to have people involved and motivated to perform management functions and with the capacity to provide useful tools for its implementation (Vázquez Barquero, 2007; UNESCO, 2019).
On the other hand, it is necessary to have planning and development specific plans agreed by all partners that meet the social and economic needs of local populations, while protecting and promoting the natural and cultural heritage of their territory. The master plan must consider governance, development, communication, protection, infrastructure, finance and partnerships (UNESCO, 2019). At this point, we make the following research questions: what is the relationship between the geological heritage of our territory and the people who live in it? How can we study or analyse this relationship? What are the priorities of these communities, and how can the project empower them?
Our research focuses on analysing the participation and perception of the territory's actors concerning the identification and valuation of geological heritage. This analysis is based on preliminary Participatory Action Research (PAR), as well as on the evaluation of the degree of satisfaction and community participation in the process carried up to establish the ‘Litoral del Biobío’ Mining Geopark project.
Section snippets
Community participation in Geoparks
The involvement of local communities in geoconservation has developed widely in countries where social awareness of geological heritage is important (Gordon et al., 2012; Whiteley and Browne, 2013; Miles, 2013). On the other hand, in rural areas of countries where the understanding of geological values is not so developed, conflicts may arise (Popa, 2015). In the case of indigenous communities in Latin America (Walker Painemilla et al., 2010; Corrigan and Hay-Edie, 2013) or other traditional
Participatory action research methodology (PAR)
Our research aims to quantify the usefulness of PAR methodology applied to the local sustainable development based on geological heritage in depressed territories characterized by the presence of indigenous communities. These results should demonstrate the potential of the education, tourism, and empowerment of the communities involved for their own benefit (Baum et al., 2006). Under this approach, PAR starts with the assumption that minority communities can and should benefit from such
Results
In this section are presented the different qualitative and quantitative results obtained by each workshop.
Discussion
The participation of people from different communities in the workshops realized are analysed here. The invitation to participate in these workshops, which are also part of the development and implementation of the Geopark project, was open to the whole community for the Geopark territory that correspond to 837,039 inhabitants, according to the last census (INE, 2019). The record of 637 attendances to the workshops by 369 different participants from all the communes, make necessary to analyse
Conclusions
The study and the interpretation and discussion of the results obtained allow us to draw the following conclusions:
- i)
Bottom-up community work provides local communities with tools for the understanding and management of geodiversity. It thus empowers them based on the knowledge of the geological values of their territory that are a kind of ‘alien content’ to them before the development of our intervention. Our ideas on how to approach socio-economic development are always biased. Therefore, it is
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
The ‘Litoral del Bíobío’ Mining Geopark Project (16BPER-66991) was financed by the “Corporación de Fomento Productivo” (CORFO) and executed by the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción (UCSC), as the winner of a tender, under the line of “Bienes Públicos Estratégicos Regionales" (BPER) in 2016.
The authors thank public and private actors, who have strongly supported the project, particularly the “Seremi de Minería” of Biobío Region, the “Servicio Nacional de Turismo” (SERNATUR) of the
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