We are pleased to announce that following the support of colleagues from around the world, the proposal for an International Geodiversity Day is now officially on the agenda for the next UNESCO Executive Board Meeting! UNESCO Member States supporting the proposal include: Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, Italy, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Uruguay, Viet Nam, and Zimbabwe.
You can find the proposal here: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375688
The proposal will now go forward to a vote at the 211th session of the Executive Board, which will take place between 7-21 April. All being well, the final decision will then be made at the 41st session of the UNESCO General Conference in November 2021, with the first International Geodiversity Day being on 6 October 2022. There is still time for more countries to show their support, so do continue to lobby your country’s UNESCO Permanent Delegation. Member States wishing to add their name to the proposal should contact the Portuguese Delegation.
Thank you once again for all your help and support towards this worthy endeavour. Over the coming weeks we will be in touch with more news on the upcoming vote, and also a number of online events we will be holding to highlight the International Geodiversity Day project. In the meantime, do refer to the website, geodiversityday.org, for more information.
With all good wishes,
José Brilha, Murray Gray, Jack Matthews, Zbigniew Zwolinski
