Involving local communities and volunteers in geoconservation across Herefordshire and Worcestershire, UK—the Community Earth Heritage Champions Project

Although an increasing number of people are becoming aware of the importance of geological conservation there is still a long way to go before it achieves the conservation profile and participation levels enjoyed by wildlife conservation. Local and county based geoconservation groups have achieved a great deal in the UK in recent years. One of the main challenges they still face is to conserve and monitor their Local Geological Sites when funding to do so is scare or absent. This lack of resources has meant that there is little or no capital funding to carry out specific conservation activities or core funding to enable conservation groups to pay suitably qualified staff/consultants to monitor the condition of their sites. The Community Earth Heritage Champions Project was primarily developed by the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Earth Heritage Trust as a solution to these problems; recruiting local volunteers to take on the monitoring and conservation role at a local level across the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, England. By taking a number of different approaches towards community involvement, there are now 19 geological sites, all in excellent condition, that are being monitored by groups of keen individuals who are willing to promote geological conservation to other members of their community. One of the main achievements of this project has been the success in convincing those with no prior interest, that geology is a fascinating and important field of scientific study and that geological sites are worthy of conservation.