At the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Portuguese Association of Geologists (APG) and the 71st EFG Council meeting, a workshop on “The importance of geological knowledge for sustainable land use” was held on 19 May 2016 in Lisbon. The workshop’s aim was to look at ways in which geological knowledge can contribute to the understanding and management of land use in order to provide a better decision-making and policy-planning framework.
Mattia Pellegrini, Head of Unit for Raw Materials, Metals, Minerals and Forest based industries from the European Commission set the European tone by providing an overview on recent developments in the implementation of the 2nd Pillar of the Raw Materials Initiative (RMI). Further international and Portuguese high-level speakers like William J. Siok (American Institute of Professional Geologists), John Cowley (Director of Mineral & Resource Planning Assoc.), Luca Demicheli (Secretary General of EuroGeoSurveys), Carlos Zorrinho (Member of the European Parliament), Teresa Ponce Leão (President of the National Laboratory of Energy and Geology), Constantin Ciupagea (Head of Unit, Joint Research Center, European Commission) and Jorge Seguro Sanches (Portuguese Secretary of State for Energy) contributed with their knowledge and their ideas to enhance the event.
In the roundtable discussions held in the final session of the workshop, the importance of conveying unbiased and clear scientific information to policy makers was highlighted. It was underlined that this is clearly the role of geoscientists working in the public sector and it was stressed as the most important aspect of communication with policy makers and the public. The speakers concluded that without clear, simple, straightforward information on geosciences topics it is risky (or even impossible) to take appropriate action, and that this affects not only territorial planning but many other aspects of society (e.g. water management, natural hazards, energy supply, etc.). Geosciences professionals have therefore an important role to play, and it is paramount they combine knowledge and ethical considerations, to produce insight useful to the society.
EFG President Vitor Correia moderates round table discussions.
The workshop was completed on Friday, 21 May, by a fieldtrip to the Lousal Mining Complex and Science Centre, an international example of success in socio-economic, environmental and mining heritage rehabilitation.
