It’s the next big step toward global recognition for the Niagara Geopark.
On Sunday night, Perry Hartwick and Darren Platakis, board members for the registered educational charity, welcomed UNESCO evaluators Jakob Walløe Hansen and Sarah Gatley at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. Hansen flew in from Denmark while Gatley arrived from Ireland.
Their role over three busy days - Monday through Thursday - is to collect enough information to pass on to a UNESCO council that will decide whether or not the collection of 20-plus geosites in the region will find its way onto UNESCO’s global network.
According to UNESCO's website, "UNESCO Global Geoparks are single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development. A UNESCO Global Geopark uses its geological heritage, in connection with all other aspects of the area’s natural and cultural heritage, to enhance awareness and understanding of key issues facing society, such as using our earth’s resources sustainably, mitigating the effects of climate change and reducing natural hazard-related risks."
Walløe Hansen is a geologist, paleontologist, and the head of outreach, education, and research at the UNESCO Global Geopark Odsherred in Denmark. He also serves as the chair of the Geological Society of Denmark and Nature Interpreting Denmark. Walløe Hansen made his first UNESCO mission as an evaluator in 2019. The current mission to Niagara is his seventh. In addition to his role as an evaluator, he also acts as UNESCO’s envoy, fostering strong relationships.
Gatley’s background is in paleontology and oil and gas consultancy. She spent 20 years in the Geological Survey of Ireland documenting and promoting Ireland’s geological heritage. Gatley has been a European Geopark Network Coordination Committee member since 2012 and on the roster of UNESCO Global Geopark Evaluators since 2016. She is currently on the board of directors for the Copper Coast UNESCO Global Geopark in Ireland, and is their European Geopark Network Geoscientist.
Hartwick, Platakis and Niagara Geopark manager Aydan Drumm squired the evaluators to the Rodman Hall Boutique Hotel in St. Catharines, where the three made a short presentation Sunday night about what they would see during their stay.
Monday began at the hotel with an Indigenous Thanksgiving address by Phil Davis, a member of the Niagara Geopark board and its Indigenous culture liaison.
From there, they embarked on a whirlwind trip, during which they visited designated Niagara Geosites at Balls Falls in Lincoln, Beamer Memorial in Grimsby, Rockway in Lincoln and St. Johns in Fonthill.
They also stopped at the First Nations Peace Monument on Decew Road and concluded the day with a cultural event at the Niagara Regional Native Centre in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
It isn’t Gatley’s first trip to Niagara. She told The Local that she visited as a tourist just last year. But like many others, she came, saw Niagara Falls, and left. On Monday, she was relishing the opportunity to see much more of the region.
She likened her visit last year to the way many experience one of the Geoparks in her native Ireland.
“People are aware of the Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark there,” she said. “The cliffs have always been an iconic tourist destination. But like the Falls, people came in on a day trip and didn’t spend much money. The idea was to spread the tourists around the Burren area.”
That’s exactly what the group behind the aspiring Niagara Geopark are trying to accomplish with the UNESCO designation - to urge people who come to see the falls to stay a little longer and see more of what the region has to offer.
Gatley is used to the whirlwind pace of an evaluation mission. In only three days she and Walløe Hansen have to see the geology of the Geosites, the cultural and natural heritage of the region, and meet as many partners and stakeholders as possible.
“You don’t get a Geopark without the people and the community,” she said. “You can have the most amazing geology in the world, but if you don’t have the people to drive the concept you won’t have a Geopark.”
As far as criteria for the evaluators go, Walløe Hansen says it’s important that what is written in the application for Geopark status has to be proven to be true on the ground.
“You look for the proper backing from the local stakeholders and partners,” he added. “You look for proof the organization behind the Geopark is well-administered and that the finances are sound.”
The two evaluators took many photographs and videos as they were being led through the Geosites by experts such as Dr. Alicia Powell and Adam Christie from the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, who led the tour through the St. Johns Conservation Area. They stopped to get a closer look at some of the rock formations and asked many questions about the area’s flora and fauna.
Walløe Hansen explained that after departing Niagara, he and Gatley will have up to four weeks to write detailed reports before passing them on to the UNESCO council by mid-August.
“We might make recommendations in our reports,” added Gatley. “The same recommendations that we tell the Geopark people. We don’t put anything in the report we don’t tell them. If it’s an obvious yes, they get a green card. If there is a lot in place but just a few critical things missing, they’ll get a yellow card, giving them two years to put in place what’s needed.”
Hartwick, Platakis and company will then await the council’s decision until some time in late spring, 2025.
Of course, neither Gatley nor Walløe Hansen could reveal to The Local what they thought of Niagara’s chance of earning the UNESCO evaluation. But Walløe Hansen did say that about 50 Geoparks are either evaluated or revalidated (all Geoparks are reassessed every four years) yearly. Only five or ten, he said, do not make the grade.
Day two of the evaluators’ visit included visits to Decew Falls, the Wainfleet Wetlands, Morgan’s Point, The Geokids camp at Mel Swart Gibson Lake Conservation Park, the Lock 3 Museum and Lacrosse Hall of Fame and NOTL’s Voices of Freedom Park. It wrapped up with a wine tasting and dinner at a NOTL winery.
