Elsevier

Gondwana Research

Volume 110, October 2022, Pages 107-113
Gondwana Research

Geoconservation in Africa: State of the art and future challenges

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2022.05.022Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Geodiversity outcropping in Africa still remains to be analyzed and disclosed.

  • Studies regarding the geoconservation in Africa are biased and geographically limited.

  • The existing literature is mainly related to inventorying and assessment procedures.

  • Protection and public policies assigned to nature conservation are scarce.

  • Geoeducation and geotourism can foster local socio-economic sustainable development.

Abstract

The rich African geodiversity is underrepresented among the Earth's geoheritage and still remains to be analyzed and disclosed. This requires inventory and evaluation of geosites with the aim of being protected, as well as valuing and monitoring procedures fostering sustainable development through geoeducation and geotourism.

This work presents the current state of geoconservation in Africa based on a bibliometric and mapping analyses of available literature. A total of 244 online documents were analyzed according to its three epistemological dimensions: Basic, Applied and Technical Applications.

The obtained results show that the different dimensions of geoconservation in Africa are biased and geographically limited. Most of them refer to geoheritage diagnosis, i.e., they correspond to inventory and assessment initiatives concerning territories mainly located on the coast and on the northern and southern edges of the African continent, therefore related to Basic Geoconservation. Results also show that Africa displays different types of geoheritage, a dimension that corresponds to Applied Geoconservation, but geoheritage's diagnosis and typology is scarcely developed. Technical Applications of Geoconservation refer to the set of materials, methods and/or scientific services that are useful to society. They include protection legal instruments and public policies assigned to nature conservation or the production of relevant resources for geoeducation and geotourism. While geotourism can display significant development in Africa, conservation and geoeducation are poorly represented. Such results will allow defining a road map for geoconservation in this continent thus assisting decision makers to establish specific priorities for the conservation of the abiotic dimension of nature in Africa.

Keywords

Basic Geoconservation
Applied Geoconservation
Technical Applications of Geoconservation
Africa
Scientific literature
Content analysis

Cited by (0)

Keynesménio Sousa Afonso Neto is Researcher of the Public University of São Tomé and Príncipe and Predoctoral Researcher at the Geosciences Center of the University of Coimbra (Portugal). MSc in Geosciences and graduated in Geology (University of Coimbra, Portugal). Research fields include micropaleontology, cartography and environmental education. He currently develops geoconservation studies applied to African territories.

Maria Helena Henriques is Professor at the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and Director of the Geosciences Center of the same university. PhD in Geology, ScD in Paleontology and graduated in Journalism (University of Coimbra, Portugal) she has a long experience as invited professor at different universities in Europe, Africa and South America. Research fields include paleontology, stratigraphy, science education and geoconservation. Published over 30 books, 80 book chapters and 100 research papers, and integrates the editorial boards of several scientific journals.