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Geoconservation in Africa: State of the art and future challenges
K. Neto, M.H. Henriques
⇑
University of Coimbra, Department of Earth Sciences and Geosciences Center, Rua Sílvio Lima 3030-790 Coimbra, Portugal
article info
Article history:
Received 18 April 2022
Revised 23 May 2022
Accepted 25 May 2022
Available online 22 June 2022
Handling editor: M. Santosh
Keywords:
Basic Geoconservation
Applied Geoconservation
Technical Applications of Geoconservation
Africa
Scientific literature
Content analysis
abstract
The rich African geodiversity is underrepresented among the Earth’s geoheritage and still remains to be
analyzed and disclosed. This requires inventory and evaluation of geosites with the aim of being
protected, as well as valuing and monitoring procedures fostering sustainable development through
geoeducation and geotourism.
This work presents the current state of geoconservation in Africa based on a bibliometric and mapping
analyses of available literature. A total of 244 online documents were analyzed according to its three
epistemological dimensions: Basic, Applied and Technical Applications.
The obtained results show that the different dimensions of geoconservation in Africa are biased and
geographically limited. Most of them refer to geoheritage diagnosis, i.e., they correspond to inventory
and assessment initiatives concerning territories mainly located on the coast and on the northern and
southern edges of the African continent, therefore related to Basic Geoconservation. Results also show
that Africa displays different types of geoheritage, a dimension that corresponds to Applied
Geoconservation, but geoheritage’s diagnosis and typology is scarcely developed. Technical
Applications of Geoconservation refer to the set of materials, methods and/or scientific services that
are useful to society. They include protection legal instruments and public policies assigned to nature
conservation or the production of relevant resources for geoeducation and geotourism. While geotourism
can display significant development in Africa, conservation and geoeducation are poorly represented.
Such results will allow defining a road map for geoconservation in this continent thus assisting decision
makers to establish specific priorities for the conservation of the abiotic dimension of nature in Africa.
Ó2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of International Association for Gondwana Research.
1. Introduction
The long 4-billion-years autobiography of Africa can be told
from its geological, biological and cultural perspectives along sev-
eral Heritage Corridors (‘‘The Africa Alive Corridors”), each repre-
senting a chapter in the overall story (Toteu et al., 2010). Within
this holistic approach to African natural heritage 20 Heritage
Nodes per Corridor have been identified, including Geoparks and
geosites, Ramsar Sites, biodiversity hotspots, Biosphere Reserves,
Trans-frontier Peace Parks, World Heritage Sites, archaeological
sites, rock-art galleries, historical cities, etc.. But much of the rich
geodiversity outcropping in Africa still remains to be analyzed
and disclosed despite recent efforts to bring to light what is consid-
ered a geological paradise for its geodiversity and richness of nat-
ural resources (Martínez-Frías and Mogessie, 2012; Errami et al.,
2015). This extraordinary geodiversity is made of unique and typ-
ical geosites which require inventory and evaluation with the aim
of being protected, as well as valuing and monitoring procedures
fostering sustainable development through geoeducation and geo-
tourism (Ngwira, 2020).
In 2009 the African Association of Women in Geosciences cre-
ated the African Geoparks Network aiming at: identifying and
inventorying geosites; promoting and increasing the awareness
amongst policy makers and the general public, in particular local
communities, about the protection of and the benefits of geoparks
creation for local socio-economic sustainable development; build-
ing the capacity of the local population in the field of geoheritage
and geoconservation (Errami et al., 2015). The first paper about
the African geological heritage published in a specialized journal
that covers all aspects of geoheritage and its protection (the Geo-
heritage journal) was published in 2011 (El Hadi et al., 2011) and
refers to the Bou Azzer ophiolitic complex (Anti-Atlas, southern
Morocco). A recent initiative undertaken by the Journal of African
Earth Sciences is the edition of a special volume dedicated to ‘‘Geo-
heritage in Africa: Potential, Assessment, and Conservation”, that
welcomes both regular research papers and short reports on exist-
ing and potential African geosites (Tewksbury et al., 2021). These
two reference journals can play a major role in disseminating
geoconservation approaches to the rich African geodiversity and
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2022.05.022
1342-937X/Ó2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of International Association for Gondwana Research.
⇑
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hhenriq@dct.uc.pt (M.H. Henriques).
Gondwana Research 110 (2022) 107–113
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Gondwana Research
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gr
contribute to reduce its underrepresentation among the Earth’s
geoheritage.
The gap between Africa and the other continents regarding geo-
conservation is closely related to human development issues.
Africa is the least-developed continent outside of Antarctica, with
most of the African countries occupying the lowest positions
regarding Human Development Index Ranking or HDI (UNDP,
2021). This advanced metric tracks a wide range of indicators, from
Adult Literacy Rate and Life Expectancy to the Gross National
Income per capita (GNI), i.e., the dollar value of a country’s final
income in a year, divided by its population. All data is compiled
into a number between 0.00 and 1.00 and each country into one
of four different classifications between Very High (0.80–1.0), High
(0.70–0.80), Medium (0.55–0.70) and Low (0–0.55). According to
the 2020 HDI Report, Mauritius is the only country among the Afri-
ca’s 54 countries considered to have very high human develop-
ment (WPR, 2022;Fig. 1). In fact, the top 10 most developed
countries in Africa are: Mauritius (0.804); Seychelles (0.796); Alge-
ria (0.748); Tunisia (0.740); Botswana (0.735); Libya (0.724); South
Africa (0.709); Egypt (0.707); Gabon (0.703), and Morocco (0.686).
Henriques et al. (2011) characterize geoconservation as an
emergent geoscience within the Earth and Space Sciences and
define the three main dimensions of this new scientific field: Basic
Geoconservation related with its scope and methods, as well as
with the production and validation of knowledge; Applied Geocon-
servation concerning the multiple interrelations with other earth
sciences; and Technical Applications of Geoconservation as the
set of materials, methods and/or scientific services that are useful
to society. A recent work about the current status of geoconserva-
tion strategies so far implemented in Brazil has been developed
based on the analysis of successful geoconservation initiatives rep-
resenting a three-module geoconservation framework: diagnosis
which includes inventory, assessment, characterization and indica-
tions of protection and use; conservation related to legal protec-
tion, conservation and monitoring; and promotion which regards
valorization, interpretation and dissemination (Garcia et al.,
2022). Each step of this geoconservation chain traduces specific
activities related to two of the three dimensions previously estab-
lished for this emergent geoscience: while diagnosis feeds science
knowledge sensu lato (Basic Geoconservation and Applied Geocon-
servation), conservation and promotion actions correspond to
Technical Applications of Geoconservation (Henriques et al., 2011).
Geoconservation has a very poor record in many countries of
Africa where studies regarding the different dimensions of geocon-
servation are scarce (Reimold, 1999; Errami et al., 2015).
This work presents the current state of geoconservation in
Africa in the above three epistemological dimensions based on bib-
liometric and mapping analyses of available literature. The
obtained results will allow defining a road map for geoconserva-
tion in this continent thus assisting decision makers to establish
specific priorities for the conservation of the abiotic dimension of
nature in Africa, in agreement with the statements and recommen-
dations of the Declaration of Antananarivo concerning geological
heritage and its conservation in Africa (DA, 2019).
2. Materials and methods
The present work analyses the content of published papers
related with geoconservation issues in Africa since 1999
(Reimold, 1999). Its development has taken into account the
Fig. 1. The 2020 Human Development Index Ranking Report for African countries (modified after WPR, 2022) and distribution of literature mainly related to inventory/
assessment procedures and geotourism activities by country.
K. Neto and M.H. Henriques Gondwana Research 110 (2022) 107–113
108
three-phase methodology proposed by Herrera-Franco et al.
(2021): (i) search criteria and source identification, (ii) software
and data extraction, and (iii) data analysis and interpretation.
The primary source of publication data for this study is the Clar-
ivate Analytics’ Web of Science Core CollectionÓdatabase, a
publisher-independent global citation database covering the
Science Citation Index Expanded and the Social Sciences Citation
Index (Clarivate, 2021). But other published literature comprising
academic publications that have documented original empirical
and theoretical work in this area including journal articles, books,
government policy, documents, websites, and research reports
were also taken into account when accessible online through other
databases for scholarly literature like ScopusÓ(Elsevier, 2021) and
Google ScholarÓ(GS, 2021). Documents arising from the authors’
personal knowledge were also included; they refer mainly to pub-
lications in Portuguese, which are out of scientific data bases
(Henriques et al., 2013). However, they result from the growing
scientific cooperation among the Community of Portuguese-
Speaking Countries in earth sciences, namely in geoconservation
issues (Henriques et al., 2010). Data collection presented some
constraints, and it may be incomplete due to difficult access to
internal reports eventually developed by national agencies and/or
unpublished theses eventually held at universities, among other
document types. All the collected data are included in Table 1 (Sup-
plementary Material).
In total, we analyzed the content of 244 documents, which have
been characterized in terms of its contribution for the development
of geoconservation in the African continent. It was considered the
three dimensions of geoconservation established by Henriques
et al. (2011), represented by three sets of specific actions and activ-
ities, i.e., diagnosis, conservation, and promotion (Garcia et al.,
2022). As so, the analyzed publications were classified in three
clusters corresponding to:
- substantive meaning of geoconservation as a science, i.e.,
knowledge related to specific concepts, principles and methodolo-
gies of geoconservation as a science corresponding to Basic
Geoconservation;
- uses of knowledge on geoconservation in other geoscientific
areas therefore enabling to distinguish between different types of
geoheritage, like paleontological, mineralogical, geomorphological,
volcanological, etc. - as proposed by Ruban (2010), Habibi et al.
(2018 and references therein) and Henriques and Neto (2015,
2019) - and corresponding to Applied Geoconservation;
- materials, instruments and/or scientific services of practical
value provided by geoconservation aimed at valuing and promot-
ing the geological heritage, like the establishment of protection
legal instruments and public policies assigned to nature conserva-
tion or the production of relevant resources for geoeducation and
geotourism and corresponding to Technical Applications of
Geoconservation.
The data analysis and interpretation (bibliometric and mapping
analysis) have been focused on the contribution by countries for
the overall knowledge so far developed on different dimensions
of geoconservation in Africa grounded in descriptive statistical
methods.
3. Results
In general terms, it can be said that the development of geocon-
servation in Africa remains rather incipient when compared with
other continents. As pointed by Sallam et al. (2018), present
knowledge of geological heritage is strongly developed in Europe
and South East Asia, and it is rather incomplete in Africa. During
the 1970s UNESCO created several programmes aiming at preserv-
ing nature representing different sectorial approaches to nature
and cultural heritage: the Man and Biosphere managed since
1971 by the Natural Science Sector; the World Cultural and Natural
Heritage managed since 1977 by the World Heritage Centre which
runs within the Cultural Sector (Henriques and Pena dos Reis,
2019). The Geosciences and Geoparks Programme, which runs
within the Natural Science Sector, was created only in 2015; at pre-
sent, there are 169 UNESCO Global Geoparks in 44 countries
(UNESCO, 2021). They include two African Geoparks: the M’Goun
UGGp in Morocco and the Ngorongoro Lengai UGGp in Tanzania,
which represent only 1% of the three current UNESCO site designa-
tions in Africa (Biosphere Reserves and World Heritage Sites;
Fig. 2).
Studies regarding the different dimensions of geoconservation
in Africa are biased and geographically limited. Results show that
most of them refer to geoheritage diagnosis, i.e., they correspond
to inventory and assessment initiatives concerning territories
mainly located on the coast and on the northern and southern
edges of the African continent, therefore related to Basic Geocon-
servation (Fig. 3). Among the available literature it is possible to
recognize that Africa displays different types of geoheritage,
besides the generic geological heritage type: geomorphological,
volcanic, paleontological, and mineralogical (Fig. 4). This dimen-
sion corresponding to Applied Geoconservation cannot represent
the rich geodiversity outcropping in 20% of the planet’s total land
area, which needs to be unraveled. Conservation, valuation, and
monitoring cannot proceed if geoheritage’s diagnosis and typology
is scarcely developed. The production of relevant resources
for geoeducation and geotourism, corresponding to Technical
Fig. 2. The impact in Africa of the three current UNESCO programmes aiming at
preserving nature and cultural heritage.
Fig. 3. Distribution of documents mainly related to inventory/assessment, conser-
vation, and valuation/monitoring contents.
K. Neto and M.H. Henriques Gondwana Research 110 (2022) 107–113
109
Applications of Geoconservation, are of great help to implement
geoheritage-based projects fostering economic and social develop-
ment among African communities (Matshusa et al., 2021a). This
kind of geoheritage promotion exists especially in countries where
legal instruments and public policies assigned to nature conserva-
tion also exist. This is the case, for instance, of two southern coun-
tries: the National Heritage Council of Namibia, which is the
administrative body responsible for the protection of Namibia’s
natural and cultural heritage (NHC, 2022); the South African Her-
itage Resources Agency, which is the national body responsible
for the protection of South Africa’s cultural heritage resources, that
include sites as well as geological collections and specimens
(SAHRA, 2022). The first one displays medium human development
and the last one is one of the top 10 most developed countries in
Africa (Fig. 1;WPR, 2022). In many other countries, Technical
Applications of Geoconservation are mainly restricted to geo-
tourism initiatives (Fig. 5). When the community is involved in
geoconservation through formal and informal local-based initia-
tives, this can represent a key element for co-management of
natural conservation strategies and for the support of local equity
and empowerment in territories where no legal framework has yet
been developed and/or is scarcely implemented aiming at the
preservation of its geoheritage (Berkes, 2004; Okazaki, 2008;
Tavares et al., 2015). This target can be strongly potentiated
through conservation and geoeducation policies.
4. Discussion
Geoconservation requires inventory and evaluation procedures
which play a decisive role in the implementation of any subse-
quent conservation action of the geological heritage (Henriques
et al., 2011). The content analysis of the existing literature regard-
ing African geoheritage developed in the present research shows a
prevalence of works related to inventorying and assessment proce-
dures and to geotourism activities.
The geoheritage inventorying and assessment methods most
frequently used were conceived in European countries with a vast
Fig. 4. Distribution of documents mainly related to types of geoheritage per country in Africa.
Fig. 5. Distribution of documents mainly related to protection, geoeducation, and geotourism contents.
K. Neto and M.H. Henriques Gondwana Research 110 (2022) 107–113
110
accumulated scientific knowledge and are difficult to apply to
other socio-economic contexts. As pointed by Xavier et al.
(2021), the existing literature regarding geoheritage inventorying
and assessment should be reviewed as valuation criteria need to
be adapted to each territory, scale, and inventory purpose. Effective
protection of the geological heritage value requires the local com-
munities and actors’ involvement in all of the geoconservation pro-
cedures, through a community-based geoheritage assessment, and
not only at the final part of the process, when it is expected from
local communities to preserve the physical integrity of the geolog-
ical heritage (Tavares et al., 2015; López-Otálvaro, 2019). Accord-
ing to such model, the geoheritage assessment is grounded on
the need of integrating both the geoheritage properties displayed
by the geological objects and usually recognized by experts (i.e.,
relevance grade) and the social role attributed to geological objects
by communities outside Earth scientists (i.e., abstract perceptive-
ness) (Pena dos Reis and Henriques, 2009). Their implementation
allows bringing academia and public administrations closer to
the common goal of promoting geoconservation by sharing similar
conceptions and values and collectively recognizes the heritage
value of special places within their territory (Carvalho et al.,
2020). Moreover, it can be adjusted to different political and social
contexts and allows the continuous incorporation of new analytical
elements for the same territory. This is particularly useful in Africa
and other south hemisphere territories like Brazil where the geo-
logical knowledge is limited due to its size, available resources
and accessibility constraints to some vast areas (Xavier et al.,
2021).
Garcia et al. (2022) recognize that in Brazil items related to the
diagnosis and promotion of the geological heritage are most preva-
lent than those regarding conservation; they consider that most of
the people involved in diagnosis and promotion are geoscientists,
whilst conservation involves the participation of national or local
government administrators and the existence of adequate legisla-
tion. However, the existence of legislation proved to be very con-
troversial in many countries around the world, including South
Africa (Cairncross, 2011; Matshusa et al., 2021b; Ruban, 2012). In
fact, geoconservation strategies based only on the scientific per-
spective, despite its social dimension, is usually unsuccessful in
terms of both legal geoconservation acts and effective geoconser-
vation behavior (Pena dos Reis and Henriques, 2009; Matshusa
et al., 2021a). The implementation of targeted local geoconserva-
tion projects with global impact rooted in culturally specific values,
norms, beliefs, and attitudes directed at changing harmful behav-
iors is the most effective way of promoting geoeducation and geo-
tourism, and therefore global sustainability (Werlen et al., 2016;
Henriques and Brilha, 2017; Henriques et al., 2020).
Education, namely geoeducation, provides opportunities for
social/cultural, academic, scientific and professional growth and
development. This is a particularly important issue in Africa where
most of the areas are not explored, not mapped and many of the
potential natural resources are not known (Martínez-Frías and
Mogessie, 2012) or correspond to publications that do not include
local researchers, therefore enhancing the so-called parachute
Science (Raja et al., 2021).
On the other hand, the rich African geoheritage can provide sus-
tainable development through geotourism, therefore contributing
to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda
(Gill, 2017; Matshusa et al., 2021a). But this requires promoting
significant and relevant learning on geology and on geoconserva-
tion and training citizens as geoscience communicators and educa-
tors committed towards the conservation of geodiversity and
towards the understanding and appreciation of the geological
sciences by tourists and communities living and working in the
territory (Henriques et al., 2012; Gill, 2017). In fact, geoconserva-
tion is an emergent geoscience with a clear and deep social inter-
relation, namely through education for sustainable development
(Henriques et al., 2011). Promotion of Earth Sciences-based educa-
tion for sustainable development, namely through geoconserva-
tion, is a vital tool in training African citizens capable of fostering
economic and social development through geotourism, and so
improving their HDI toward nature-based human development
(UNDP, 2020).
5. Conclusions
The African continent makes up 20% of emerged Earth and 4-
billion-years of its history. But the most significant features of such
a narrative are not yet fully known. It is assumed that they are rep-
resented in sites and geological materials within the immense geo-
diversity of Africa, but they need to be discovered, assessed and
used as a tool of sustainable development of local communities.
Geoconservation refers to inventory, evaluation, conservation, val-
uation and monitoring of the geological heritage. The content anal-
ysis of the existing literature regarding African geoheritage is
scarce and limited to a small part of the 54 countries. Moreover,
such documents are mainly related to inventorying and assess-
ment procedures, therefore related to Basic Geoconservation,
implemented in regions located on the coast and on the northern
and southern edges of the continent. They also reveal few geoher-
itage types identified so far, and few materials, instruments and/or
scientific services of practical value aimed at valuing and promot-
ing the geological heritage in Africa. In this sense, to overcome this
imbalance in African geoconservation, both Applied Geoconserva-
tion and the Technical Applications of Geoconservation require
an urgent increase up growth. While Applied Geoconservation
tasks are mainly assigned to experts, the establishment of protec-
tion legal instruments and public policies assigned to nature con-
servation, as well as the geoeducation policies, depend mostly of
policy makers, while the production of relevant resources for geo-
tourism requires a fruitful articulation between experts and
entrepreneurs.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This study was developed in the frame of the UI/
BD/151297/2021 grant supported by Portuguese funds by Fun-
dação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (Portugal) through the
UIDB/00073/2020 and UIDP/00073/2020 projects of I & D unit Geo-
sciences Center (CGEO), and is a contribution for the Portuguese
National Committee for the International Geosciences Program of
UNESCO (IGCP). The authors are grateful to two anonymous
reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2022.05.022.
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K. Neto and M.H. Henriques Gondwana Research 110 (2022) 107–113
112
Keynesménio Sousa Afonso Neto is Researcher of the
Public University of São Tomé and Príncipe and Pre-
doctoral Researcher at the Geosciences Center of the
University of Coimbra (Portugal). MSc in Geosciences
and graduated in Geology (University of Coimbra, Por-
tugal). Research fields include micropaleontology, car-
tography and environmental education. He currently
develops geoconservation studies applied to African
territories.
Maria Helena Henriques is Professor at the University
of Coimbra (Portugal) and Director of the Geosciences
Center of the same university. PhD in Geology, ScD in
Paleontology and graduated in Journalism (University of
Coimbra, Portugal) she has a long experience as invited
professor at different universities in Europe, Africa and
South America. Research fields include paleontology,
stratigraphy, science education and geoconservation.
Published over 30 books, 80 book chapters and 100
research papers, and integrates the editorial boards of
several scientific journals.
K. Neto and M.H. Henriques Gondwana Research 110 (2022) 107–113
113
