GeoMon

GeoMôn was set up as a major project to establish Anglesey as an international 'Geopark'. Geoparks are recognised and promoted by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation), and the European Geoparks Network (EGN).  The EGN was established in 2000 by France, Germany, Spain and Greece, and there are now 37 European Geoparks, including our own. In 2004, a meeting of international geoconservation experts in Paris recommended that UNESCO should establish a Global Geoparks Network  and operational guidelines were agreed.

Any territory wishing to become a Geopark must have a special geological heritage and be able to use that heritage to promote sustainable economic development through education and 'geotourism'. The Isle of Anglesey has a unique and internationally important geo-heritage. Arguably, it has the greatest geodiversity for its size of anywhere in Europe, possessing rock formations from most of the major geological eras. Its Precambrian rocks extend back beyond 600 million years ago and contain the first evidence of life in Welsh rocks. Indeed, the rocks of Wales are as varied as the landscape they produce, and our small country has few rivals anywhere in the world with as rich a geological heritage or geodiversity. It was to Wales that many of the pioneering geologists came. Here, they named some of the divisions that define the international geological timescale - for example, the Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian periods, the last two named after Celtic tribes.