There will be a geopark in Kyrgyzstan!
On September 17-20, under the auspices of UNESCO, an International Seminar «Geoparks in Central Asia – Territories for the Development of Geotourism and Sustainable Management of Geological Heritage, Natural Resources and Hazards» was held at Batken State University.
The event was opened with words of greeting by the rector of Batken State University A.T. Gyyazov, plenipotentiary representative of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic in the Batken region, governor of the Batken region A.K. Alimbayev, Head of the Natural Sciences Department of the UNESCO Cluster Office in Almaty for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan Kristine Tovmasyan.
At the plenary session, K. Tovmasyan widely covered the UNESCO international program on geoparks and geosciences. Scientists from Russia and Turkey shared their experience in creating geoparks, and their colleagues from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan presented projects for global geoparks. Representatives of the geological science of Kyrgyzstan in their reports revealed all the geodiversity, uniqueness and cultural value of the geological objects of the Batken region.
Candidate of Historical Sciences, senior lecturer at the Department of History and Cultural Studies of the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University. B.N. Yeltsin Vasily Ploskikh made a presentation on the topic «The ancient cave mine of Kan-i-Gut – a unique monument to the history of mining production on the Great Silk Road in Central Asia».
As a result of the seminar, the participants approved a project to create a global geopark in Madygen (Batken region, Kyrgyz Republic). An agreement on cooperation in the field of creating global geoparks was also signed between UNESCO and 6 countries: Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Germany.
