Annual meeting
of the Geopark-Carrier Association Braunschweiger Land – Ostfalen:
Understand Geopark as a model region for sustainable development
Teaching, 29.01.2019
The Geopark-Carrier Association had invited its members to the annual general meeting in the town hall of Lehr. In addition to the velvet community of Sickte, the velvet community of Baddeckenstedt and the municipality of Ummendorf, the municipality of Lehr is one of the new members of the sponsoring association that has been added in 2018/2019.
In his annual report on the year 2018, Chairman Werner Schlichting spoke, which focused entirely on the implementation of the core tasks in the event of a tight cash position: preservation and maintenance of the existing facilities, the maintenance and implementation of a Geopark event calendar, the training and further education of geopark guides and cooperation in the UNESCO Geopark network were the focal points of the work. Around 1,200 people took part in special guided tours and events of the Geopark-Carrier Association in 2018. However, the visit to the freely accessible Geopark facilities was many times higher.
Mayor Andreas Busch is looking forward to the upcoming cooperation in the Geopark network and is currently starting to define possible geopoints and geopaths in his municipal area. Together with the office in Königslutter, these will then be further developed into excursion destinations and learning places.
In particular, the topic of “Education for Sustainable Development” is high on the Geopark agenda. UNESCO geoparks have been defined as model regions for sustainable development and there are many possible working approaches (regional products, climate change, flood protection, renewable energies, etc.) under the motto “regional solutions for global issues”. The head of the office Dr. Henning Zellmer calls on the counties, cities and municipalities to use the Geopark even more than before as an instrument for the implementation of joint projects.
It is still not clear to what extent and under what conditions the Geopark will be supported by the state of Lower Saxony in 2019 and, if possible beyond. It is clear, however, that the sponsoring association will not be able to implement the tasks required by UNESCO on a permanent basis without the support of the country.
Photo: The mayor of the municipality of Lehr, Andreas Busch (right), and the representative of the velvet community of Sickte, Reinhard Deitmar (left), received the UNESCO Geopark certificate as a sign of their membership in the sponsoring association from the chairman Hans Werner Schlichting.