Geopark GrenzWelten hosts regional conference

For two years it could not take place due to the Corona pandemic, now those involved met again for their Geopark Regional Conference. The GrenzWelten National Geopark had invited to Korbach for the 11th edition of the event. The ideally suited premises of the Dreiraum Coworking Space in Lengefelder Straße had been made available to the project office for this purpose.

About 30 participants were informed about the development of the Geopark in the last three years, learned about further plans and listened to two expert lectures. They were welcomed by District Administrator Jürgen van der Horst, who commemorated the late Geopark initiator Norbert Panek in his welcome speech.

In her review, Geopark Director Kim Peis looked back at the two topics of "Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)" and digitalisation. Both were increasingly the focus of the Geopark's project work. In the field of education, they resulted in the ESD module "The Earth in Motion" for primary schools, the cooperation in the ESD diploma "Clever macht Zukunft" and the certification of the first Geopark day-care centre in Hesse. The new geoguide "Zechstein Sea" is freshly printed and now available. On approx. 70 pages, those interested can follow the traces of the Zechstein Sea through the region and the history of the earth.

The Geopark is far ahead in the nationwide comparison with its augmented reality offerings, which have so far been realised at the Korbacher Spalte and at the Hohenäcker quarry in Frankenberg. Another interactive project of supra-regional significance on the Korbach Iron Mountain near Goldhausen belongs to this area. It is to be presented to the public together with the district and Hanseatic city at the beginning of 2023.

Prof. Dr. Heinrich Thiemeyer from the Institute for Physical Geography at the University of Frankfurt gave the conference participants an understanding of the landscape genesis of the Geopark in the Quaternary period, which began 2.6 million years ago and had a decisive influence on the shape of our low mountain range landscape. Afterwards, Ms Taline Krüger presented the research results of her Master's thesis, in which she - in cooperation with the Geopark GrenzWelten - deals with the problem of environmental communication and perception using the example of Waldeck-Frankeberg. The focus was on approaches to successful and target group-oriented communication of the topics of climate and environmental protection.

The regional conference resulted in numerous new project ideas that are now being tackled by the Geopark in cooperation with its partners. These include a stronger thematic focus on the Earth's recent history, the Quaternary, in the form of events, educational offers and guided tours. Furthermore, a so-called "geo-window" is to complement the work with schools in the future and be available as a "test tube" for the geosciences. We can look forward to the implementation of the ideas and proposals in the GrenzWelten.

Keywords:

Geopark GrenzWelten Environmental and Climate Protection Service