The 3rd International Geoparks Conference will take place from the 22 to 26 June 2008 in Osnabruck, Germany, and it will attract a worldwide audience.  Prior to that the organising committee of the conference in conjunction with the Geopark Network are arranging a competition for secondary school students (15-18 years old) living within or near a Geopark.  The idea behind the competition is to get young people interested in the Geopark concept and the earth history of their region.

To enter the competition teams of 2-4 students need to examine and understand their own Geopark and then think about how they would present it too others.  The English Riviera Geopark team will judge an overall local winning team. The winning team with the best presentation will then have the opportunity of an expenses paid trip to join other students from Geoparks all over the world at an Earth Camp in Osnabruck 20 to 29 June 2008.  The winning team will also be invited to present their idea to experts from all over the world at the Global Geoparks Conference.

More information can be found by downloading the 'Dear Teachers' letter here, and in the project poster, which is available for downloading here.

(Both files are PDF files).

An funding update (as of the 11th of February 2008).

The English Riviera Geopark has today received the following update from Terra vita Naturpark, Osnabruck, Germany:

The organising committee of the Meet Your Geopark competition in Germany, have advised that they may have found funding to cover the cost of the accompanying adult in addition to the cost of the 4 students.

This is great news.

We hope to have confirmation by the end of March and we will pass on any further information regarding the competition as and when it arrives.

We'll be following this with interest, and the website will be updated as soon as we have an update from Terra vita Naturpark.