2011 Volume 120 Issue 5 Pages 733-742
According to the guideline of the Global Geoparks Network (GGN) supported by UNESCO, a geopark must be an area that has geoheritages and other natural and cultural heritages with clearly defined boundaries and a large enough in area to serve local economic and cultural development through geotourism. A geopark must integrate sites of significant geoheritage in a strategy for sustainable regional socio-economic development and must be based on strong local community support and professional management structures.
The GGN was established in 2004 with the support of UNESCO. Since then the concept of the GGN has received global acceptance and it now has 77 members from 25 countries including four geoparks in Japan as of April 2011.
Activities to establish geoparks in Japan started in 2005 and accelerated in 2007 with cooperation from academic societies related to earth sciences and local municipalities. The Japan Geopark Committee (JGC) was established in 2008 to have aspiring geoparks in Japan evaluated by academic societies. The JGC decided the first three candidate areas in Japan to apply for the GGN in October 2008 and endorsed the first seven national (domestic) geoparks including above-mentioned three candidates for the GGN in December 2008. The Japanese Geoparks Network (JGN) was established in February 2009 by the seven national geoparks. Four more geoparks were endorsed by the JGC and joined the JGN in October 2009. As of May 2011 JGN has fourteen geoparks including four global geoparks, namely Itoigawa, Sanin Coast, Toya-Usu, and Unzen.
Geoparks in Japan play important roles in educating people about the earth sciences and disaster mitigation. Support given by scientists and the local people themselves to local communities is crucial for fostering education on the earth sciences in geoparks.
