Planning for geoconservation in the 1940s: an exploration of the aspirations that shaped the first national geoconservation legislation

In 1949, the British parliament passed the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act, the first national nature conservation legislation to include specific provision for the conservation of geological and geomorphological features. This Act played a pivotal role in establishing geoconservation as part of nature conservation within Great Britain and has provided the foundation for more than sixty years of geoconservation legislation, policy, practice and participation. Despite the ‘ground breaking’ nature of this Act, little is known about what it was intended to achieve for geoconservation and no assessment of its effectiveness has ever been made. Whist the aspirations for wildlife conservation that informed this legislation are well known, those for geoconservation are not. Through reviewing early examples of geoconservation practice and through analysis of the reports commissioned by the British government to inform the development of the 1949 Act, ten aspirations for geoconservation in 1940s Britain are identified. For each aspiration, an assessment is made as to whether it was recognised within the 1949 Act, whether it could be delivered through the wider provisions of the Act and whether it has been met over the sixty-plus years since the Act was passed. It is concluded that virtually all of the aspirations have been met, largely as a result of 1949 Act, but in some cases through voluntary action unrelated to any form of conservation legislation. It is now timely to develop new aspirations and a new geoconservation agenda for the future.