Zebro monthly report of the Geopark Naturtejo Meseta Meridiona l n. 31! In this issue: – 23rd EGN Meeting: Culture of hospitality in Sardegna – National Commission for UNESCO visits Naturtejo Geopark - Naturtejo supports the new project “Azores Geopark” – Geointerview with Roigar López and more… www.geoparknaturtejo.comDDDDDD Olá/Hola/Ciao/Bonjour/Γειά σου/Hallo/God Dag/Salut/Zdravo/Hello There are several ways of contributing for the development of the land that model you as individual: conservation and divulgation of legacy are two possibilities. Parco Geominerario de Sardegna is the proper example of the first way. After the decline of mining industry a strong cultural and proud connection to the underworld subsisted. So the need to preserve mining memory and heritage and rehabilitation of the old mining complexes comes from inside community, sometimes no without heroic fight against imputed strategies. The conservation of an outstanding legacy must be followed by spreading the interest of national and international societies through a well established strategy of heritage divulgation/tourism promotion. Sardinia tourism is mostly related with sun & beach and highly seasonal. Place like Carbonia, Iglesias or Buggeru offer superb tourism products but is easy to realize that they follow the seasonality of tourism as secondary attractions to diversify the tourism offer. We can feel this through the quietness of the commerce in the towns and the reception offices in the mining attractions. The landscape was radically changed by mining and strong investments for remediation must keep in pass with all the conservation. But even these landscapes transformed by metal pollutants and wasting areas can be a tourism opportunity as we may realize not far from Sardegna through the success of the Iberian Pyrite Belt and, most of all, Rio Tinto mining tourism destination. The other way is to establish a communicational strategy of a pristine legacy. This could be the case of Naturtejo Geopark. The strategy must be planned in the office, but constantly adjusted by local institutions and stakeholders in order to include community every evolving need and ambitions in to the main national projects for development. With the communication strategy being applied every day and invariant concerning the scale of action, from local to national, interest by society is kept high, and visitors increasingly arrived both national and international. But their interest on the Geopark must surpass during the visit by other means the idea they got from promotion. So, promotion must be followed with a good communication (signing) strategy that easily takes people to visit the best of the Geopark. Being here, visitors must find the best conservation efforts and facilities to understand easily and fully enjoy geological attractions and all heritage. This is the way to transform curious visitors in recurrent happy tourists. This the way to foster local economy and proud among local communities. This is the way we still need to do. 2 Geopark Naturtejo Meseta Meridional is… Armindo Jacinto Carlos Neto de Carvalho Rui Marques Rafael André Cristina Preguiça Jesus Alarcón Agronomist Engineer Geologist Biologist Economist Journalist Commercial Chairman of Naturtejo Scientific Coordinator Marketing Financial Planner Administrative Agent for Spain Vice-president of Idanha Researcher Fátima Rodrigues Eliane Antunes Alice Marcelo Pedro Martins Eddy Chambino Nuno Capelo Agronomist Engineer Financial Manager Accountant Ecotourism Anthropologist Marketing Tourism/Communication Tourism/Webpage Administration assistant Tourism/Photographer Researcher Marketing/Designer Manuela Catana Ana Rita Mota Miguel Costa Silva Tiago Oliveira Pedro Dias Joana Rodrigues Teacher of Natural Tourism Doctor of Law Management Environment Engineer Geologist Sciences Tourism Planner/Events Events Planner/Tourism Fairs Geoheritage Educational Programs The team work! Where… Centro Cultural Raiano – Geopark Headquarters Naturtejo – Tourism Company Av. Joaquim Morão Rua Conselheiro Albuquerque, 4 Cave C 6060-101 Idanha-a-Nova 6000-161 Castelo Branco Contact us! tel: +(351)277 202 900 fax: +(351)277 202 944 email: [email protected] www.geoparknaturtejo.com 3 1) Activities 1st March – A Walk by the Geopark. 55 Spanish tourists started the month with “A walk in Geopark Naturtejo” through the history of Fossils Route, Monsanto and Idanha-a-Nova, with Eliane Antunes and Cristina Preguiça leading the group. __________________________________________ 2nd March – By the gorge of Erges River with the schools of the territory. Manuela Catana and João Geraldes guided 34 pupils from the primary schools of Penha Garcia and Relva through the Erges gorge at Salvaterra do Extremo. __________________________________________ 5th March – “Tourism and Development” students learn about the Geopark. 50 people from the School of Education of Leiria came to Idanha-a-Nova to meet new tourism concepts. Carlos Neto de Carvalho presented the Geopark at the Penha Garcia tourism office and guided the field trip by the Ichnological Park of Penha Garcia. Pedro Martins took the group to the Vultures Trail to observe gryphon vultures mating. Casa do Forno was the example visited as new tourism business for the region. __________________________________________ 6th March – Pupils from the Land of Dinosaurs meet the Land of Trilobites. 45 students from the 11th grade and 4 teachers coming from Lourinhã High School, with a beautiful sauropod as symbol, visited for the second year Penha Garcia Ichnological Park and Monsanto inselberg. Manuela Catana and João Geraldes were the hosts of this day full of joy. 4 __________________________________________ 6-8th March – Fun trip “Discovering the Templar Geopark”. Halcon Viajes commercials made the Programme “Discovering the Templar Geopark”. For the 50 commercial operators this was a fun trip where they tested the special tourism package to sell it all over Spain and Portugal. __________________________________________ 10-12th March –Persian culture joins Mediterranean culture in Geopark Naturtejo. Neda Torabi is part of a research programme of PhD student at the University of Aveiro. The aim of her study is to find out the effects of creation geopark on geotourism and local economy, starting from Qeshm Global Geopark. During 2 days Neda and her husband Rasool visited some natural wonders, like the Fossils Route, Portas dos Ródão Natural Monument, Portas de Almourão Geomonument and Fossil Trees with Joana Rodrigues and Carlos Neto de Carvalho. To understand the local economy Neda was invited to try some local products such as the Earth Slides in Casa do Forno and Maranhos in S. Torcato Muradal Guest House. Neda also participated in an Educational Program, in Monsanto, with Manuela Catana and João Geraldes, with dozens of small children from the Primary School. This visit was a very rich exchange of culture, where East and Western were connected by the Geology and friendship. __________________________________________ 11th March – Pupils learn while climbing the inselberg. The project “discover geomonuments from your place” reached the climax with the 45 pupils from the Ladoeiro and Relva primary schools. Remind that this project aims to meet all the 5 schools from Idanha-a-Nova municipality with their main geosites. Manuela Catana and João Geraldes were once more the field teachers. __________________________________________ 12th March – Into the “Park of Fossils”. 42 pupils from Idanha-a-Nova Primary School visited the Ichnological Park of Penha Garcia with Manuela Catana and João Geraldes. __________________________________________ 12th March - Students from Amato Lusitano High School in the National Congress of Young Geoscientists. A brilliant work done by Joana Caria and Inês Martins! After an educational program in Penha Garcia last year these students from Amato Lusitano High School, Castelo Branco, decided to develop by themselves a school project this year about Penha Garcia fossils. Their results were presented at the National Congress of Young Geoscientists, organized this year by the University of Coimbra and attended by 500 pupils. For both students the most interesting thing at the Penha Garcia Ichnological Park is the geological setting and paleoenvironments existing in this area many million years ago. For helping divulgation of the Park they decided also to create a blog which can be found at http://ichnofossils.blogs.sapo.pt/1323.html, and already visited 1280 times. Wonderful to find such proactive enthusiasm from students! __________________________________________ 6 13th March – TriloPaint Tournament! Our young and active outdoor company Trilobite Adventure presented its recent GeoProduct: the 1st Paintball Championship – TriloPaint. Trilobite Adventure is hosted in Penha Garcia surrounded by the Ordovician vestiges and all its activities intend to present trilobites to the society. This championship is one of its products that join dozens of “colorful” people in 3 stages during March, April and May. __________________________________________ 16-20th March – Naturtejo Geopark presented as example in the I Latinamerican Congress on Geotourism. Federación Geoparques de Venezuela is healthy than ever! This time they organized the I Latinamerican & Caribbean Congress on Geotourism initiative in La Asunción, Margarita Island, very close to the first Geopark project in Venezuela. This very successful meeting was sponsored by the General Mining Company of Venezuela and was