Delegates from across the country convened in Tumbler Ridge for the first ever meeting of the Canadian Geoparks Network.
“That was the highlight of the meeting for me: that we got a chance to meet face to face for the first time in ten years,” said Godfrey Nowlan, chair of the network. “We’ve all seen each other face to face, but we’ve never been in the same room.”
Nowlan says a lot of progress came out of the meeting, but mostly behind the scenes stuff. “It’s boring to the public,” he admitted. “We’ve been an ad hoc committee for the last decade. We are creating a new legal entity, a not for profit that will formalize and allow us to do a little more in the way of presence and advertising and promotion.”
He says Geoparks in Canada are starting to take off. “We now have three. Stonehammer in New Brunswick, you guys, and Percé, in Quebec. We have two more applications that went in this year, and the decision will be made on them next year. If they are accepted, that brings us to five, which is a respectable number.”
And, with each new Geopark, the process of developing a new Geopark becomes easier. “The quality of application doesn’t reflect on previous ones, but because we’ve been around a while the initial quality of applications is vey high compared to early days when we were feeling our way around them. We are now much more functional. I can foresee a day when we have thirty or forty Geoparks, because we have such a huge country.”
In addition to the conference itself, there was also an indigenous round table seeking to engage with indigenous people who live and operate in and around the Geoparks. “The engagement of indigenous people is exciting,” says Nowlan. “The Canadian Commission for UNESCO is keen on reconciliation, and geoparks are great way to engage with indigenous people. They know about the land. It makes sense to engage and involve them. And engaging with them, it helps us a lot. We are always looking for engagement, and it’s better for it to happen on their own land.”
This was Nowlan’s first trip back to Tumbler Ridge since the opening of the Geopark, and he says he is thrilled to see the impact the Geopark has on the community and how deeply it has been taken to heart. “Seeing the signage and the Visitor Information Centre…you are really aware of it being a Geopark. That really heartened me. It’s incredible the amount of development that has happened. They’ve done a wonderful job. And it seems to have had a very positive impact on the community.”
The other thing that’s developing in Tumbler Ridge , says Nowlan, is connecting healthy living in Geopark. “I’ve been helping Charles with that. We hope its something that Canada will return to the world, that healthy lifestyle motif would be a great feature for Geoparks worldwide. It’s specific to Tumbler Ridge for now. For such a small place, it’s making a big impact.”
