Québec's geological heritage: geosites
Pierre Verpaelst
Direction de géologie Québec
Why protect geological sites? The
Earth is the ultimate support for all known and yet-to-be-discovered
ecosystems. In other words, through its wildlife and vegetation,
it supports life as we know it.
Our geological heritage is the “Memory of
the Earth, record inscribed both in its depths and on the surface,
in the rocks and in the landscapes…” (Declaration of
the Rights of the Memory of the Earth, Digne, France, 1993). That
heritage is the Earth's archives, as it were, in their countless
forms. Geosites are a means of protecting these archives.
The goal of the geological heritage protection
strategy now being prepared is to protect and conserve geological
diversity or “geodiversity”, meaning the whole range
of Québec's geological environments and features. However,
this geological diversity is endangered by natural catastrophes
and by man's interventions in his environment.
Protecting geodiversity is important because it
makes it possible to improve our understanding of all the features
of the geological cycle. These features are the subject of many
scientific studies, which lead to perfecting knowledge about them.
It also amounts to a legacy for future generations so that they,
too, can benefit from the geological as well as the biological components
of ecosystems.
There are already protected areas in Québec:
provincial and federal national parks, ecological reserves, wildlife
preserves, and exceptional forest ecosystems. Certain areas even
contain outstanding geological sites, such as Miguasha
Park on the Gaspé Peninsula. But Québec does not
have a geological heritage protection strategy yet.
Mingan Archipelago
The purpose of a geological heritage protection
strategy is:
- to improve knowledge about the evolution of environments, life,
and therefore our own evolution;
- to make this heritage accessible to everyone, so that no one
can take possession of it for their own use;
- to improve participation in local, national, or all of humanity's
economic development;
- to preserve features that have aesthetic value. These features
are part of familiar landscapes and help us, and every living
being, to put down roots in our environment.
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