Local communities and young people – the future of geoconservation

The UK has weakening development controls, limited earth science teaching and reducing financial resources which directly impact the geological community's ability to sustain the conservation of local geodiversity. Geoconservation is becoming a function of interested local people's desire to do something rather than having a formal mandate and paradoxically it is non-geologists who are often best placed to do the practical conservation. Fewer younger people are getting involved in geoconservation which is particularly worrying for the future. Local geology needs to be meaningful and personal to a much wider range of people if we are to achieve a sustained geoconservation outcome. There is a fantastic array of local geodiversity assets to engage new people but perhaps we need to use them in exciting new ways in order to succeed. This paper focuses on some inspirational projects that have engaged local communities and younger people in the Black Country, England, UK.