Table Of ContentUNESCO Global Geoparks
UNESCO Global Geoparks
Tension Between Territorial Development
and Heritage Enhancement
Edited by
Yves Girault
First published 2019 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Yves GIRAULT
Part 1. Objectives, Issues and Tensions Related to
the Patrimonialization of Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1. Natural Heritage, Participatory Democracy and UNESCO:
a Structure of Disillusionment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Igor BABOU
1.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2. The participation in question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3. A brief history of participatory mechanisms
and environmental democracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4. Critical assessments of participatory mechanisms
and environmental democracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.5. Points of tension within protected natural areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.5.1. The significant dimension of the devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5.2. The proliferation and professionalization of intermediaries . . . . . 14
1.5.3. Standardization of participation models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.6. The example of the Lanzarote geopark:
top-down approach and brand logic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.7. Conclusion: the democratic consequences
of the contradictions of participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 2. The Ambivalences of the Co-construction
of a Mental Territory: a Case Study on Spanish UGGs . . . . . . . . . 23
Catalina GONZALEZ TEJADA and Yves GIRAULT
2.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
vi UNESCO Global Geoparks
2.2. Problematic issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3. Methodology and construction of the corpus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.4. The construction of the story of the mental territory
of the Spanish geoparks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.4.1. First initiatives to protect geological aspects in Spain . . . . . . . . 29
2.4.2. Various definitions of geological heritage in Spain . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.4.3. Cultural enhancement of geological heritage:
a disciplinary approach between protection and
dissemination of geology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Chapter 3. The History of the Earth as a New Form of Territorial
Marketing: the Case of the Geopark of the Tremp-Montsec Basin
(Spain) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Fabien VAN GEERT
3.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.2. Economic development and the use of heritage
in the Catalan Pyrenees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.3. The protection of Catalan geological heritage
and its valorization through geoparks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.4. The Tremp-Montsec Basin Geopark Project
and the creation of a territory brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.5. The declaration of the Tremp Geopark
and the definition of its future challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Chapter 4. Patrimonialization and the Geopark Label:
for Which Development Model in the South?
The Case of Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Ouidad TEBAA and Saïd BOUJROUF
4.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.2. Geopark in Morocco: new label, new territory
and new heritage process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.2.1. The relationship to heritage and patrimonialization in Morocco:
between identity, museumization and commodification . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.2.2. What is the debate on the social acceptability
and local utility of geoparks? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.3. Challenges in the territorial construction of geoparks
and their heritage development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Contents vii
4.3.1. Challenges in the fight against poverty
and/or heritage preservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.3.2. Challenges of intersectoral articulation and integration . . . . . . . 84
4.3.3. Governance challenges for geoparks projects: involving residents . 86
4.4. Questions and reservations about the contribution
of a UNESCO model of geoparks for development in the South . . . . . . . 88
4.5. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Chapter 5. The Evolution of the Economics of
Culture and its Influence on the Development of Geoparks . . . . . . 91
François MAIRESSE
5.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.2. Museums and heritage sites in the market economy . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.3. The economic discourse on heritage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.4. Economic evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.5. From the cultural economy to the creative economy. . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5.6. The economic challenges of geopark development . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Part 2. Heritage Inventory and Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Chapter 6. Methodological Proposal for the Valorization of the
Geodiversity of Rural Areas Comparable with the Zat Valley . . . . . 111
Joan POCH, Antonio TEIXELL, David GÓMEZ-GRAS, Francisco José MARTÍNEZ,
Esteve CARDELLACH and José Luis BRIANSÓ
6.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
6.2. Geological context of the study area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
6.3. Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
6.4. Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
6.5. SWOT analysis and diagnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
6.6. Results: methodological proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.6.1. Geoethics framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.6.2. Assessment of the geodiversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
6.6.3. Selection of sites of geological interest for scientific,
didactic or tourist use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6.6.4. Geosites of scientific interest: fostering scientific research . . . . . 126
6.6.5. Geosites of didactic interest: fostering the teaching of geology . . . 126
6.6.6. Geosites of geotourism interest: fostering sustainable tourism . . . 127
6.7. Discussion and conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
6.8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
viii UNESCO Global Geoparks
Chapter 7. Interpreting Landscapes from a
Socioecological Perspective: a Methodological
Approach from the Zat Valley (Morocco) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Martí BOADA JUNCÀ, Roser MANEJA ZARAGOZA, Jaume MARLÈS MAGRE,
Josep Antoni PUJANTELL ALBÓS, Sònia SÀNCHEZ-MATEO and Carles BARRIOCANAL
LOZANO
7.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
7.2. Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7.2.1. Chromatic assessment and identification of landscape units . . . . . 136
7.2.2. Socioecological transects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
7.2.3. Study area: Zat Valley (Atlas Mountains, Morocco) . . . . . . . . . 138
7.3. Results and discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7.3.1. Chromatic assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7.4. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
7.5. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Chapter 8. The Feeling of Archaeology and the
Sense of History in the Mixteca Alta Geopark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Francisco VALDEZ
8.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8.2. The park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.3. The people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
8.4. Archaeology: the marks of history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8.4.1. A communal feast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
8.5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
8.6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Chapter 9. One of the First Rock Art Sites Discovered
and Now Protected in Morocco: the Case of Azrou Iklane
(Assa Region, Morocco) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Gwenola GRAFF, Maxence BAILLY, Abdelhadi EWAGUE and Martin LOYER
9.1. Introduction: presentation of the site and scientific interest . . . . . . . 169
9.2. Contemporary situation of the site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
9.3. History of searches on the site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
9.4. Work of the French team and interest from local authorities . . . . . . . 172
9.5. Rock art, a source of regional enhancement, and
the dynamics of the integration of rock art into Moroccan heritage . . . . . 174
9.6. The World Heritage nomination process for the Tighmert
Oasis and its surroundings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
9.7. Contribution of recent work to the preservation of remote
and fragile archaeological sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
9.8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
