Multidesignated areas: case study from Comarca Minera UNESCO Global Geopark, Mexico

The emergence and implementation of the geopark concept bring into discussion the topic of areas with previous designations (i.e. biosphere reserves, national parks) and open up the debate on challenges to areas aspiring to new ones (e.g. heritage stones, IUGS geological heritage sites). When put into context, the ‘layering’ of designations, whether they are partial or total, national or international, bring the need to harmonize documents, management plans and teams; advancements and new given designations in dissonance with normative implementation are detrimental to such goals but happen, as evidenced in the general lack of geoconservation laws in Mexico. Comarca Minera is a UNESCO Global Geopark having one National Park (El Chico) totally immersed in the polygon and one Biosphere Reserve (Barranca de Metztitlán) which overlaps c. 9.15% of the total area of the geopark. Communal land inhabitants and owners (ejidos), undertaking geosite maintenance and involved in geopark activities, are widespread in the area and these are the only places in the country to be in two designated areas (geopark–national park and geopark–biosphere reserve). The benefits of multiple designations in the territory are seen in education agreements, increased transdisciplinary research, domestic and international agreements, public awareness, a sense of pride and engagement of communities. While the previous natural designated areas have existed for decades (1987 to the present) the geopark lessons learned so far (e.g. a lack of institutional coordination at the national level, an ineffective national legal framework, differences in reporting and objectives) stress the need to establish a permanent inter-institutional committee to avoid isolated normatives. Multidesignated areas are the new challenge of natural protected areas in Mexico.