The UNESCO published an article about the recently concluded Geoheritage (WP-D) training session that took place from 13-18 June 2022 (In French) in Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo.
The Republic of Congo came a step closer towards setting up a geopark between 13 and 18 June when it was one of 14 African countries which sent delegates to a training course on geological heritage in the departments of Pointe-Noire and Kouilou. The 25 young geologists left the course vowing to inventory the geological heritage in their respective countries.
Blending theory with field visits, the trainers expounded on the concepts of geodiversity, geological heritage and geoconservation for the benefit of delegates who had come from the geological surveys of Algeria, Angola, Benin, Comoros, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Togo and Senegal. Experts on geoheritage explained to the trainees how they defined geological heritage and classified this at the local, regional, national and international levels.
The course organizers are grateful to the Ministry of State and Minister of Mines and Geology, Pierre Oba, for his warm welcome of Africa delegates and his participation to this course.
The six-day course was part of PanAfGeo, an initiative co-funded by the European Union that has been supporting the training of geoscientific staff from African geological surveys since 2016 to increase African-owned geological knowledge and skills for sustainable mineral exploitation and related infrastructure, as well as natural disaster prevention and mitigation. PanAfGeo stands for Pan-African Support to the EuroGeoSurveys-Organisation of African Geological Surveys Partnership. This unprecedented pan-African project is led by the French Geological Survey, the Bureau de recherche géologiques et minières. The course was co-organised by the Polish, French and Spanish geological surveys in close cooperation with UNESCO. The course was hosted by the Ministry of Mining Industries and Geology.
