The 5th Workshop of Italian Geoparks, organized by the Geological and Mining Geopark of Sardinia, welcomed the participants in the Conference Hall of the Mining Archive derived from the beautiful renovation of the establishments of the Monteponi mining district at Iglesias (Carbonia Iglesias province). After the greetings of the newly elected mayor of Iglesias, Emilio Gariazzo, the workshop opened with keynote speeches by Antonio Granaro and Francesco Usalla, Commissioner and Director of the Geo-mining Geopark of Sardinia, respectively, and Mariano Conto, Regional Ministry of Work of the Sardinia Autonomous Region. In particular, the Director Usalla summarized the performed activities and the achieved objectives in the last year in preparation of the revaluation process by the EGN-GGN network that the Geopark of Sardinia will be submitted from July 22, 2013. Firm support to the initiatives of the Geo-mining Geopark of Sardinia came, on behalf of the Italian Geoparks Forum, by its Coordinator, Maurizio Burlando who recalled that another Italian Geopark, the Madonie Geopark, will undergo revalidation in summer 2013. The year 2013 will be very challenging for Italian Geoparks as the Cilento and Vallo di Diano Geopark has been called to organize the 12th Conference of European Geoparks (4-6 September 2013).
The opening speech on the topic of the Workshop "The trails network of Geoparks and Nature Parks: design, restoration and enjoyment" has been assigned to Dionigi Secci (Forest Agency of Sardinia) who presented the very ambitious regional project, almost completely brought to conclusion, aimed to the printing of which 11 maps of itineraries in Sardinian protected areas, and the development of a web portal from which these maps can be downloaded.
The topics of the workshop were discussed also within the poster session. In particular, a discussion on the meaning of hiking maps with scientific-cultural content was solicited by Dr. Cristina Giovagnoli (ISPRA) just in reference to the contribution of the Apuan Alps Geopark that exposed two maps in print, the “Hiking and geotourist Map of the Apuan Alps” and the “Hiking and environmental Map of the Apuan Alps”. To the discussion, very stimulating and sometimes vibrant, took part, in addition to representatives from Apuan Alps, Emanuele Guazzi and Giuseppe Ottria, the home hosts of the Geo-mining Geopark of Sardinia Francesco, Muntoni and Francesco Usalla, and the Director of the Tuscan Mining Geopark, Alessandra Casini.

workshop photogallery