Objects of Geological Heritage in Natural-reserved Fund of Ukraine (р. )

Abstract

During the long history of the development of the movement for the conservation of valuable natural heritage sites there has been an unchanged tendency towards increased attention to wildlife as opposed to objects of inanimate nature or geology . Important geological sites have either gone unnoticed, been ignored or simply been excluded from their deserved inclusion in the nature reserve structure. This is a general trend which concerns not onlyUkrainebut the rest of the world. Nevertheless, the geological component is one of the most important components of the natural environment and is no less important than the other components .The main purpose of this study is to examine the tendency to recognise the importance of the conservation of the geological heritage both at the European and at the world level. Following the creation of the European Association for the Conservation of the Geological Heritage (ProGEO ) the concept of geodiversity became firmly established, alongside that of biodiversity, in the practice of conservation inEuropeand, later, the world. Drawing on the examples of various countries we have examined the historical background to the issue of the conservation of unique geological heritage sites or geological monuments (geosites). We have focused our attention upon the clear successes of the Ukrainian representatives of ProGEO, which in cooperation with the Ukrainian Department of Geology and Mineral Resources has conducted a survey, inventory, catalogue and created a database of natural geological monuments, resulting in the publication of the four volume monograph, “Geological Monuments ofUkraine”.An important step towards the recognition of the importance of the geological component in the formation of the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine has been the active cooperation between members of the Ukrainian Department of Geology, ProGEO and the Department for Ecology and Natural Resources in Dnipropetrovsk region (oblast) for identifying suitable sites for inclusion in the Nature Reserve Fund of that region. The result of this collaboration was the rapid adoption and confirmation of the decisions of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council for the designation of new regional landscape parks, nature reserves of various categories and natural monuments .