Conservation of geosites as a tool to protect geoheritage: the inventory of Ceará Central Domain, Borborema Province - NE/Brazil

The Ceará Central Domain, in the northern Borborema Province/NE Brazil, encompasses important geological records (geosites) which allow understanding a relevant period of the Earth’s evolution, mainly associated to Neoproterozoic Brazilian/Pan-African Cycle and West Gondwana amalgamation, besides Neoarchean to Ordovician records. The presented geoheritage inventory aims to characterise the geosites with scienti c relevance of Ceará Central Domain. By applying a method for large areas, the nal selection resulted in eight geological frameworks represented by 52 geosites documented in a single database. This is the rst step for a geoconservation strategy based on systematic inventories, statutory protection, geoethical behaviour and awareness about scienti c, educational and/or cultural relevance of geosites.We specially thank all experts that helped us with this inventory: Afonso Almeida, Carlos E.G. de Araújo, César Veríssimo, Christiano Magini, Clóvis Vaz Parente, Felipe G. Costa, Irani C. Mattos, Neivaldo de Castro, Otaciel de Melo, Sebástian G. Chiozza, Ticiano Santos and Stefano Zincone. We are also thankful to Kátia Mansur, Ricardo Fraga Pereira and anonymous reviewers for their valuable contributions. PM is grateful to Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for PhD mobility scholarship PDSE Program/Process n 88881.132168/2016-01