Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, a Local Geodiversity Action Plan is a plan which sets out actions to conserve, enhance and promote the

geodiversity Geodiversity is the variety of earth materials, forms and processes that constitute and shape the Earth, either the whole or a specific part of it.Zwolinski, Zb. 2004. ''Geodiversity'', in: ''Encyclopedia of Geomorphology'', A.Goudie (ed.), Routle ...

of a particular area, usually based along

local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

boundaries such as a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. For convenience both in speech and in the written word the term is often shortened to its acronym LGAP (and pronounced 'ell-gap'). The establishment of an LGAP typically follows the carrying out of a RIGS audit for the area concerned. RIGS are those localities within an area which have been determined to be 'regionally significant geodiversity sites' (this term is tending to replace the earlier, and somewhat clumsy, 'regionally significant geological and geomorphological sites'. The plans are analogous to the

Local Biodiversity Action Plan In the United Kingdom a local biodiversity action plan (LBAP, pronounced 'ell-bap') is a plan aimed at conserving the fauna, flora and habitats – collectively referred to as biodiversity – of a defined area, usually along local authority bound ...

s (or 'LBAPs') which have been created in respect of the fauna, flora and habitats of areas of England and Wales. The production of such plans is promoted and assisted by the statutory nature conservation bodies for England, Scotland and Wales, respectively Natural England, NatureScot and Natural Resources Wales. A similar approach is being taken by certain companies to prepare plans for their landholdings.

Examples

By way of example, an LGAP was prepared for

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

and the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...

by the Cornwall RIGS Group (now Cornwall Geoconservation Group, part of

Cornwall Wildlife Trust The Cornwall Wildlife Trust is a charitable organisation founded in 1962 that is concerned solely with Cornwall, England. It deals with the conservation and preservation of Cornwall's wildlife, geology and habitats managing over 50 nature reser ...

) and another was in preparation for the

Clwydian Hills The Clwydian Range ( cy, Bryniau Clwyd; also known as the Clwydian Hills; or simply the Clwyds) is a series of hills in the North-east Wales, north-east of Wales that runs from Llandegla in the south to Prestatyn in the north, the highest po ...

AONB An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of thei ...

, before the AONB was extended to include the Dee Valley, whilst the 2019-21 LBAP for

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

incorporates a very short (2 pages plus one Action - 1.3) LGAP.

References

{{reflist Geology of England Geology of Wales Geology of Scotland Action plans