Lesvos Petrified Forest Geopark (Greece): an attempt to evaluate 10 years of activities

Abstract

The promotion of local sustainable development is one of the strong arguments frequently used to justify the importance of geoparks, besides their role in geoconservation. The aim of this work was to measure the influence of a geopark in the local community and to evaluate the performance of this geopark in the preservation and promotion of geological heritage, combining the three fundamental keys of a geopark: the geological heritage, the people and the local development. Given its history, activity and importance in the European Geoparks Network, one of the four founders of this network, the Lesvos Petrified Forest Geopark (LPFG), in Greece, was elected as the target of this study that is part of a master thesis of the University of Minho (Portugal).