Educational Activities in Fangshan UNESCO Global Geopark and Lesvos Island UNESCO Global Geopark

UNESCO Global Geoparks are areas of international geological significance, high ecological value and rich tangible and intangible cultural heritage, whose characteristics are key elements for the sustainable economic development of local communities and well-being of local residents. The mission of a Geopark is to protect and conserve the integrity of the geological heritage sites located within its territory and to utilize abiotic natural heritage for sustainable local development. Geopark infrastructure is built in order to facilitate geosite accessibility, interpretation of the geological, natural, and cultural heritage sites, geoconservation, geoeducation, geotourism and science popularization. One of the main pillars of Geopark operation is geoeducation. Geoparks in close collaboration with educational institutions (environmental education centers, schools, colleges and universities) implement various educational activities, programs, field courses and trips. This paper focuses on Geopark education activities and presents examples of educational programs specifically designed and implemented for university students in Fangshan (China) and Lesvos Island (Greece), two of the oldest Geoparks among the 161 UNESCO Global Geoparks. The paper records and compares various methods and pedagogical approaches to designing and implementing educational activities and university curricula. Furthermore, it documents and studies the students' experiences in the two UNESCO Global Geoparks. Finally, this paper also examines the results that the collaboration between UNESCO Global Geoparks and Universities can bring to the effectiveness of educational activities and field courses in UNESCO Global Geoparks as well as the results in the perspective of the local sustainable development.