From geoconservation to geotourism: a paradigm shift

Résumé 0

For twenty years, geological heritage has been undergoing profound theoretical and practical changes. From a minor area of ??geosciences and conservation, it has evolved into an internationally recognized concern (UNESCO). New participants are now involved (practitioners, social scientists, etc.) which is leading to rapid changes in discipline and new practices. This article aims to describe the paradigm shift that took place in the 2000s, from a conservation philosophy of a natural heritage during the 20th Century to a more economic and complex approach to a geoheritage considered as a territorial development resource. This paradigm shift and the intensification of geotourism practices tend to generate increasing tensions between the imperatives of geoheritage conservation on the one hand and the challenges of territorial development on the other. This paper attempts to illustrate this progressive shift in the paradigm and the tensions it generates through (i) general epistemological development and (ii) several case studies on geoparks, but also on the PNR of the “Causses du Quercy,” a common area concerned by the difficult merging between outdoor activities and geological heritage, falling outside the framework of geotourism rendered official by the geoparks.