During the 8th International Conference on UNESCO Global Geoparks held at Madonna di Campiglio of Trento, Italy during Sept. 10-14, a sister geopark agreement was signed by the representatives of Zhangjiajie UNESCO Global Geopark (UGGp) of China and Arouca UNESCO Global Geopark (UGGp) of Portugal. This marked the start of the official cooperation between the two UNESCO Global Geoparks. So far, Zhangjiajie has developed the relationship of sister geoparks with 18 UNESCO Global Geoparks from China and abord.
Photo 1. The vice mayor of Zhangjiajie City, Mr Luo Zhibin, and the mayor of Arouka City of Portugal exchanged the signed cooperation documents.
The Arouca Geopark is located in northern Portugal and is the second Portuguese geopark to be an EGN/GGN member (April 2009). The area of the geopark is around 330 km2 and corresponds exactly to the administrative borders of the Arouca Municipality with about 25000 inhabitants. A non-profit association composed by public and private institutions with local and regional relevance assures the management of the geopark. The Arouca Geopark Association (AGA) was created just with this purpose, under the leadership of the local municipality. A Scientific Advisory Board with experts from different Portuguese universities supports the science policy and AGA activities. For a more detailed introduction of Arouka UGGp, please viste: http://www.globalgeopark.org/aboutGGN/list/Portugal/6492.htm or http://www.geoparquearouca.com/
Photo 2. The vice mayor of Zhangjiajie City, Mr Luo Zhibin, presented a rock painting of Zhangjiajie landscape to the mayor of Arouka City of Portugal
Photo 3. The vice director of the administrative committee of Zhangjiajie UGGp, Mr Hou Tiefu, signed the sister geopark agreement with the represntative of Arouka UGGp |