Resilience Live Episode 7: A Geopark Project for Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua – Making Science Useful to the Community
Date: March 21, 2024
Speaker: Dr. Benjamin van Wyk de Vries
Bionote: Benjamin van Wyk de Vries is professor of volcanology at Université Clermont Auvergne, Observatoire du Physique du Globe de Clermont, Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans. He speaks and teaches in rough English, French and Spanish. His research and teaching is transdisciplinary (geology, geoheritage, risk, communication). He has a broad publication portfolio, with diverse subjects. He is coordinating a UNESCO International Geosciences Programme project – Geoheritage for Resilience – and is part of an ECOS Mexico – France exchange. For him there should be no separation between the community, scientific research and practical application when dealing with the environmental issues. The scientist must work within society, and natural heritage is a powerful way to do this.
Presentation Abstract:
Since it was fist proposed in 2015 (by Bill Rose of Michigan Tech and Martha Navarro of INETER – Instituto Nicaragüense de Estudios Territoriales), the project for a UNESCO Global Geopark on the Isla de Ometepe in Nicaragua has grown, and developed. The fundamental need felt by the scientists at the time, was to give back to the communities what we had gained from working amongst them – Ometepe is known internationally as a scientific reference site (listed on the IUGS Global Geoheritage Sites, and an UNESCO Bisphere reserve), but little of the knowledge has come back to the community. The Geopark project is aimed at integrating the scientists and science back into the community, and to ensure a seamless continuation of that relationship. This is strongly helped by the close connection developed with the communities by Martha Navarro, and the younger INETER co-authors. Slowly we have mapped and developed geosites, and done more science, but most importantly, we have followed the suggestions and initiatives of locals and developed together good, close relationships and a working synergy. The road to a UNESCO Global Geopark is very long, and requires much more than the geological base. It needs a whole management system and sustainable strategy, and must benefit the population economically, socially and culturally, and must come from the bottom up. Scientists, if they are well integrated, can be a useful bottom up element, and every small step that brings benefit to the community is its own small advance.
Co-Authors: Eveling Espinoza, David Chavaria (INETER – Inistuto Nicaragüense de Estudio Territoriales), Carla Arias (Univ Minho), Danitza Churatta Julie Morin (University of Cambridge, imagine project)