The Geopark Guardians program was born as a community strategy within the UNESCO Global Geopark Comarca Minera. Its objective is to strengthen the Geopark’s presence across the nine municipalities that make up the territory—home to 628,746 people—while fostering heritage care, protection, and sustainable development.
To form these groups, the Geopark issued a call for local participants in each municipality. Following an information session, these individuals chose to take an active role as heritage custodians, undergoing a workshop-based training course on geological, mining, natural, and cultural heritage. The Guardians include artisans, traditional cooks, nature guides, farmers, carpenters, educators, local officials, small business owners, and producers of regional goods such as honey, jams, wine, and cheese. This diversity provides the program with a broad base of knowledge and action, deeply rooted in the environment and cultural practices of each locality.
Following their training, the Guardians actively participate in the research, safeguarding, protection, and promotion of geological, natural, and cultural heritage with a sustainable and biocultural focus. They attend community meetings, provide training, and raise awareness about the Geopark’s values in schools across all educational levels. They also represent and promote the Geopark’s philosophy at local festivals. In the field of Geo-education, they design creative and didactic workshops using accessible language for children, focusing on conservation, environmental protection, and heritage care. Through this program, the territory addresses several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as Quality Education, Good Health and Well-being, Gender Equality, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Reduced Inequalities, Sustainable Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, and Strategic Partnerships.
To disseminate multidisciplinary research, the “Geopark Guardians Permanent Virtual Seminar” was created, held every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. via Facebook Live on the Geopark’s official page.
A year and a half after its inception, the program continues to grow as a network of collective knowledge, commitment, and shared values. The Geopark Guardians are representatives of the people and a living example of community participation. They recognize and activate traditional knowledge and local practices, engaging in a dialogue with science to build a sustainable present and future. They help strengthen territorial identity and weave bonds between the Geopark and its people, generating profound transformations in the sustainable enjoyment of their land—managing from the bottom up and from the local to the global.