‘Watch over a rock’, a Spanish programme towards geosite stewardship

Abstract

A public stewardship programme: ‘Watch over a rock’ or ‘Adopt a rock’ is a national volunteering programme established in 2017 by the Geological Survey of Spain (IGME) to promote the conservation of Spanish geoheritage through a follow-up stewardship system. The original idea was launched in 2011 at a local level by the Geology Association of Segovia to promote the stewardship of geosites in this province (Vegas et al., 2012; Díez-Herrero et al., 2012; Gutiérrez et al., 2015), and now, under this new national programme, it extends to all the Geological Sites of Interest (LIG) in Spain undertaken by the institution in charge of geoconservation at the national level. Through a simple registration system, any person may watch over a place of geological interest that, for its scientific, educational or touristic value, that person thinks it is worthwhile to be preserved. Their motivation to watch over it does not matter: because it is close to their town or where they spend vacations and go there frequently, because they have studied it, or simply because they like it. Any reason is good to encourage them to do so. Once they accept being a ‘godfather or godmother of a rock’ (strict translation of the Spanish motto ‘Apadrina una roca’), they accept a minimum commitment with the LIG, which greatly helps its conservation: they must watch over the site and care for it.

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PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACT BOOK
Ewa Głowniak, Agnieszka Wasiłowska, Paulina Leonowicz

IX ProGEO Symposium
Geoheritage and Conservation:
Modern Approaches and Applications
Towards the 2030 Agenda
Chęciny, Poland
25-28th June 2018
PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACT BOOK
Edited by
Ewa Głowniak, Agnieszka Wasiłowska, Paulina Leonowicz

This publication was co-financed by Foundation of University of Warsaw and
ProGEO – The European Association for the Conservation of the Geological Heritage
Editors:
Ewa Głowniak, Agnieszka Wasiłowska, Paulina Leonowicz
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Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw,
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Layout and typesetting:
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Cover Photo:
A block scree of Cambrian quartzitic sandstones on the slope of the Łysa Góra Range – relict of frost
weathering during the Pleistocene. Photograph by Peter Pervesler
Example reference:
Dunlop, L. 2018. Natural Capital – placing a value on geoconservation within a landscape framework in
the UK. In: E. Głowniak, A. Wasiłowska, P. Leonowicz (Eds), Geoheritage and Conservation: Modern
Approaches and Applications Towards the 2030 Agenda. 9th ProGEO Symposium, Chęciny, Poland,
25-28th June 2018 Programme and Abstract Book, p. 25. Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw.
Print:
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©2018 Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw
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The content of abstracts are the sole responsibility of the authors

141
‘Watch over a rock’, a Spanish programme towards geosite stewardship
Juana Vegas1, Ana Cabrera1, Ángel Prieto1, Andres Díez-Herrero1, Ángel García-Cortés1,
Enrique Díaz-Martínez1, Luis Carcavilla1, Ángel Salazar1
1 Geological Survey of Spain (IGME), Ríos Rosas 23, 28003 Madrid, Spain; e-mails: j.vegas@igme.es, a.cabrera@igme.es,
a.prieto@igme.es, andres.diez@igme.es, garcia-cortes@igme.es, e.diaz@igme.es, l.carcavilla@igme.es, a.salazar@igme.es
Keywords: geoconservation, education, public, geosite, stewardship
Introduction: A public stewardship programme:
‘Watch over a rock’ or ‘Adopt a rock’ is a national
volunteering programme[1] established in 2017 by
the Geological Survey of Spain (IGME) to promote
the conservation of Spanish geoheritage through
a follow-up stewardship system. The original
idea was launched in 2011 at a local level by the
Geology Association of Segovia to promote the
stewardship of geosites in this province (Vegas et
al. 2012; Díez-Herrero et al. 2012; Gutiérrez-Pérez
et al. 2015), and now, under this new national pro-
gramme, it extends to all the Geological Sites of
Interest (LIG) in Spain undertaken by the institu-
tion in charge of geoconservation at the national
level. Through a simple registration system, any
person may watch over a place of geological inter-
est that, for its scientific, educational or touristic
value, that person thinks it is worthwhile to be pre-
served. Their motivation to watch over it does not
matter: because it is close to their town or where
they spend vacations and go there frequently, be-
cause they have studied it, or simply because they
like it. Any reason is good to encourage them to
do so. Once they accept being a ‘godfather or god-
mother of a rock’ (strict translation of the Spanish
motto ‘Apadrina una roca’), they accept a min-
imum commitment with the LIG, which greatly
helps its conservation: they must watch over the
site and care for it.
A personal compromise towards geoconserva-
tion: Each person accepting to watch over a geo-
site contributes to ensure its conservation with
the following compromises: (1) To accept the reg-
ulation of norms and obligations that imply to be
registered as a volunteer in the programme; (2)
To inform IGME of any threat or incident that
may occur at the site; if any anomaly is detected,
such as e.g. destruction or plundering of miner-
als or fossils, the volunteer should write to an
e-mail address (apadrinaunaroca@igme.es) and
to a regional coordinator (if already established)
indicating the name of the volunteer and the iden-
tification of the LIG; as soon as possible, the per-
son is contacted and requested to report on the
details of the incident through a form enabled for
that purpose; (3) To visit, at least once annually,
the geological site of interest that is the object
of the stewardship. IGME will ask all volunteers
once a year, between 1st of October and 30th of
November, their opinion on the state of conserva-
tion and the observation conditions regarding the
geosites they have adopted.
At the same time, in return for the volunteers,
there are several benefits: (1) Technical advice
for the presentation of allegations (legal charges)
against possible threats or incidents that volunteers
may have observed during their stewardship; (2)
Periodic information on talks, courses and meet-
ings for the exchange of experiences, which will be
organized for godparents, and last but not least (3)
The best reward that volunteers receive is knowing
that they are an active part of nature conserva-
tion and that their task and efforts are recognized
and acknowledged in the National Inventory of
Geological Sites of Interest (IELIG).
Organization and national coordination: To sig n
up for the program, volunteers only have to search
in the geosite (LIG) database of IGME, select on
the map the LIG they want to protect, and click on
the ‘Apadrina’ button. This takes them to a simple
registration form, in which they only have to pro-
vide some basic data. The program is applicable to
most geosites but not all of them, as some LIG are
confidential and information on their location is
not readily available to the public.
The coordination of the program is carried out
from the Department of Geological Heritage and
Mining Heritage of the Geological Survey of Spain
(IGME) in a generic way for the national territory,
and by the regional authorities in those regions
SESSION E: Geoconservation for science, education, and tourism

9th ProGEO Symposium, Chęciny, Poland, 2018
142
(autonomous communities) that have adhered to it.
At the moment, out of the four regions that have
an official inventory incorporated into the IELIG
(Catalonia, Andalusia, the Basque Country, and
Aragon), the LIG located in the autonomous com-
munities of Andalusia and the Basque Country can
already be adopted. In the remaining 13 Spanish
autonomous communities, and Ceuta and Melilla,
it will also soon be possible to adopt LIG, but in
these cases the management belongs to IGME. In
those cases in which the autonomous community
of the LIG to adopt has its own incident manage-
ment system, the volunteer person is redirected to
their web page through a link, and the alerts and
follow-up reports are managed directly by the re-
gional administration.
References
Díez-Herrero, A., Gutiérrez-Pérez, I., Vegas Salamanca, J.
2012. ‘Apadrina una roca’, una iniciativa de voluntariado
popular para la conservación del patrimonio geológico.
Geo-Temas, 13 (1–4), p. 388.
Gutiérrez-Pérez, I., Díez-Herrero, A., Vegas, J. 2015. En-
señanzas de los tres primeros años de funcionamien-
to de la iniciativa de geoconservación ‘Apadrina una
roca’. Cuadernos del Museo Geominero, 18, 251–256.
Vegas, J., Gutiérrez Pérez, I., Díez-Herrero, A. 2012. ‘Apa-
drina una roca’, una iniciativa de voluntariado popular
para la conservación del patrimonio geológico. 11o Con-
greso Nacional de Medio Ambiente (CONAMA 2012),
Madrid, p. 16.
Internet sources
[1] Patrimonio Geológico y Minero, http://www.igme.es/pa-
trimonio/ApadrinaUnaRoca.htm