Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, 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 governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

boundaries such as a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

. 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 Plans (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 Natural England is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is responsible for ensuring that England's natural environment, including its land, flora and fauna, ...

NatureScot NatureScot () is an Scottish public bodies#Executive NDPBs, executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government responsible for Scotland’s natural heritage, especially its nature, natural, genetics, genetic and scenic diversity. ...

and

Natural Resources Wales Natural Resources Wales () is a Welsh Government sponsored body, which became operational from 1 April 2013, when it took over the management of the natural resources of Wales. It was formed from a merger of the Countryside Council for Wales, E ...

. 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 (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

and the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly ( ; ) are a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, St Agnes, is over farther south than the most southerly point of the Great Britain, British mainla ...

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

Cornwall Wildlife Trust The Cornwall Wildlife Trust (founded as the Cornwall Naturalists' Club) is a charitable organisation founded in 1962 that is concerned solely with Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It deals with the conservation and preservation of Cornwall's w ...

) and another was in preparation for the

Clwydian Hills The Clwydian Range (; also Clwydian Hills or Clwyds) is a series of hills in the north-east of Wales that runs from Llandegla in the south to Prestatyn in the north; the highest point is Moel Famau. The range forms the north-western part of th ...

AONB An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is one of 46 areas of countryside in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Since 2023, the areas in England an ...

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

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

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