The Lesvos Petrified Forest European Geopark continued also this year the activities of promoting geotourism in Greece and abroad, protecting geological heritage and conserving the fossils. One of the main activities of the year 2006 was the completion of the conservation and protection works and the official opening of the new Plaka Park in Sigri.
Other highlights of the year included:
- Great efforts towards the cohesion and the financing of the Network have been made by the Lesvos Petrified Forest as lead partner of both the INTERREG IIIC project “European Geoparks: A tool for geotourism development in Europe” with the participation of 9 European Geoparks and the LEADER + project “GEOPARKS: Ideal destination for alternative tourism and educational activities in rural areas”, with the participation of 8 European Geoparks
- Exchanging exhibitions with European Geoparks partners at Beigua and Reserve Geologique de Haute Provence
- Collaborating with Copper Coast Geopark to exchange our experience on agrotourism development
- European Geoparks Week: We held events from the 7th of May until the 5th of June where among different activities there was a different presentation daily of a European Geopark. There was also a presentation of the whole network in the European Geoparks Corner. In the frames of the European Geoparks week have been organized guided tours in the parks, exhibitions of plants and ceramics, photo an painting competition, projection of documentaries about volcanism bio and geodiversity, awarding of the volunteers of the Petrified Forest and educational programs
- 19 publications of various sizes from leaflets to coffee table books have been printed during the year
- 17 events have been organized during the summer festival 2006 under the title “Festival of the Earth”, including theatrical plays, dance, photo, sculpture and painting exhibitions, presentations and open air activities.
Further information: Nickolas Zouros: lesvospf@otenet.gr