Lang Son geopark on journey to be recognized globally

Lang Son province needs to protect and promote the existing values of its Geopark in conjunction with its socio-economic development strategy to ensure sustainability. The focus should be on leveraging the unique characteristics of the local area, to create a distinct Geopark model different from others.

The above recommendation came from UNESCO experts during their meeting with Lang Son provincial leaders on July 10.

Kristin Rangnes and Tuncer Demir, experts from the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network, emphasized that Lang Son Geopark and other Geoparks in Northern Vietnam, should support each other for mutual development rather than competing.

UNESCO requires candidate Geoparks to have outstanding geological and natural landscape values, with distinctive features compared to other Geoparks.

The experts stressed that, Lang Son should focus on educating the community about the heritage values, to enhance their responsibility in preserving and promoting these values for sustainability.

Lang Son Geopark was established from 2021 to 2023, with an area of about 4,842 km², accounting for 58% of the province’s total area, and is home 78% of the province's population.

It boasts diverse and unique geological and natural landscape, which were formed from five typical terrain types: tectonic, erosional, denudation, accumulation, and karst.

Recently, Lang Son province has been striving to develop the Geopark as a global one./.