In 2025, sixteen territories in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East joined the UNESCO Global Geoparks network. The designations celebrate remarkable landscapes while encouraging education, local employment, conservation and community-rooted tourism.
A network expanding to fifty countries
The new designations brought the network to 229 geoparks in 50 countries. Saudi Arabia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea joined the programme for the first time. The new territories include volcanic landscapes in Indonesia and Ecuador, glacier-carved coastlines in Scotland and fossil sites in China.
A UNESCO Global Geopark is more than a beautiful landscape. It is a territory that protects geological heritage of international significance, explains it to the public and integrates it into a local development strategy. The designation therefore also depends on how residents, scientists, businesses and public authorities work together.
Making travel a tool for learning
In a geopark, trails, interpretation centres, guides and local products can turn a visit into an educational experience. The Lang Son territory in Vietnam, for example, aims to connect geological heritage with traditional songs, stories and ancestral practices.
In Ecuador, leaders of the Tungurahua Volcano and Napo Sumaco geoparks have emphasized the role of Indigenous communities in management. Elsewhere, projects focus on local employment, natural-hazard reduction or residents’ pride. Tourism becomes one of several ways to support the territory.
Recognition that brings responsibilities
The UNESCO label does not eliminate overcrowding, property pressures or transport emissions. A geopark must maintain active governance and regularly demonstrate the quality of its work. Community participation and protection of the sites therefore matter more than visitor numbers.
The network also remains unevenly distributed. UNESCO wants to strengthen capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa, Arab States, Central Asia and small island developing states. The sixteen new geoparks nevertheless point in a promising direction: travel can help people understand a landscape, finance local activity and pass on the Earth’s history without reducing it to scenery.
For travellers, this approach is an invitation to slow down. Understanding how a cliff formed, meeting a local guide or tasting a regional product can make a journey more meaningful. For residents, the challenge is to retain control of the story and the economic benefits. Geoparks can support this relationship when they foster small businesses, educational activities and practices suited to the capacity of each site. They do not automatically guarantee sustainable tourism. They do, however, provide a framework for measuring the effects of visits, protecting sensitive places and making discovery an exchange rather than simple consumption of the landscape.
Sources
- UNESCO, A growing network: 16 New UNESCO Global Geoparks welcomed at UNESCO Headquarters, June 3, 2025.
- UNESCO, “UNESCO designates 16 new Global Geoparks,” April 17, 2025.
Photo credit: Tetiana GRY and sara nudaveritas / Unsplash. Illustrative images; they do not necessarily depict the newly designated geoparks.
Article written in part with the help of AI.
