Global Geoparks in China: Think Globally, act locally

UNESCO Global Geoparks, as approaches that are led by local communities for the conservation of heritage that is of international value, are considered to be effective tools at the local level in achieving certain of the Global Sustainable Development Goals. China has the largest number of UNESCO Global Geoparks of any country in the world. These UNESCO Global Geoparks in China have greatly contributed to the development of ge-otourism in China, however, multiple designations and overheating in pursuing tourism and economic development can result in negative impacts in the development of these UNESCO Global Geoparks. Whether the three main focuses of the UNESCO Global Ge-opark, heritage conservation, education and local economic development, as defined by UNESCO are equally concerned in the establishment and development of UNESCO Global Geoparks in China is questionable. Furthermore, this research is also devoted to understanding the relationship of the spatial distribution of UNESCO Global Geoparks in China with the relevant socio-economical situations in the areas in question. This study is conducted through the qualitative research approach with questionnaires. Two questionnaires were developed for two different target groups in order to collect data from two different perspectives. One target group is the representatives of Chinese UNESCO Global Geoparks. The other is university students of various fields in China. Both questionnaires were distributed remotely to the target groups, through a shared link to the corresponding Microsoft Forms online survey page for that questionnaire. The re-sults indicate that most people in these two groups regard geological heritage conserva-tion itself as the most important goal for Chinese UNESCO Global Geoparks. Responses in this research also suggest that the representatives of Chinese UNESCO Global Ge-oparks are more concerned with the improvement in education and raising public aware-ness, while similarly university students in China tend to believe that the largest challenge for Chinese UNESCO Global Geoparks is raising public awareness so as to minimize the negative impacts people would bring to the natural environment in the territory of these UNESCO Global Geoparks