The Xeoparque del Cabo Ortegal in A Coruña will today be declared a World Geopark by UNESCO, following the decision last week in Paris by the Executive Council of the organisation, after examining the documents and reports issued in December 2022 by the auditors who visited the territory last summer.
The UNESCO commission decided to support the Xeoparque del Cabo Ortegal, and another 17 new geoparks, thus becoming the first with this qualification in the province, the second in Galicia and the only one in the Iberian Peninsula to obtain the distinction in this category.
This network is therefore made up of 195 spaces from 46 countries declared as UNESCO Global Geopark, a seal at the same level as that of World Heritage.
After years of work, in 2020 the Geopark candidacy was presented for the first time before the Spanish National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO, but in that year it was not selected as an official Spanish candidacy before UNESCO.
In 2021, the candidacy was reconsidered, being on this occasion admitted as a “candidate” receiving, in addition, the highest score. Thus, the Spanish National Commission for Cooperation with Unesco officially presented to the International Geoparks Committee of UNESCO the candidacy of the Xeoparque del Cabo Ortegal Project, for which an extensive file had to be presented.
In the case of the Xeoparque Cabo Ortegal, its richness at a geological level is indisputable, highlighting that this territory houses rocks on the surface of more than 490 million years, and materials that are usually found more than 70 kilometres deep, something exceptional and only occurs in very few places on our planet.
