Development & Promotion Project to enhance all aspects of the territory

The Haute-Provence UNESCO Global Geopark is deploying a project to promote the various heritages of the territory and proposes strategies for sustainable development of the territory by a process of partnership with the local communities and populations.

Promoting The Territory's Diverse Riches

Promoting the territory's many diverse riches and making them accessible to the general public are the primary missions of the Haute-Provence UNESCO Global Geopark. It develops museographic content, equips sites and proposes Themed Discovery Routes that allow visitors to discover and appreciate the very essence of this territory. In doing so, the Geopark encourages open-dialogue with local communities as well as other stakeholders and partners. The Geopark also provides and supports educational and awareness-raising events, activities and initiatives. There are many ways for visitors to engage with the park.

  • #1The Promenade Museum, a Geological Museum & Visitor Interpretation Centre perched on its tufffa peak (of tufffa limestone), overlooking Digne-les-Bains, it offers an unobstructed view of the town. The public is welcomed in a leafy park, an oasis of greenery and freshness, where paths and streams pass by artwork-installations by internationally renowned artists. Exhibition rooms trace the turbulent local geological history through a collection of fossil-displays and tropical marine aquariums. The Promenade Museum is the ideal gateway to begin to understand better the landscapes that surround us.
  • The Haute-Provence UNESCO Global Geopark also offers visitor the opportunity to discover the area by means of #2Themed Discovery Routes through the emblematic heritage sites and landscapes of Haute-Provence. With just a complementary map of the Themed Discovery Routes, visitors can explore the vast territory at their own pace according to different areas of interest.
  • On the way, meet our passionate restaurateurs, crafts-people, producers, accommodation-providers hosts, each with stories to tell and know-how to share. Ask for Mandala Voyages, a team of travellers and guides at heart. Taste delicious food at Marie's Café Restaurant La Beluguette, in the typically local village square of Thoard, continue your journey through the saffron-growing garden of Guilène, to the village of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, where you will discover the traditional earthenware, pottery and ceramics of the Bondil family, a precise craft passed down from generation to generation. Finish your tour with the exceptional panoramic view of the town of Digne and its mountains from the top of the perched village of Vieil Aiglun, entirely restored as Guesthouses & Holiday-Lets by the Speth family.
  • A #4Visitor Interpretation Centre with guides, tours, events and activities.
    Qualified geologists and guides will welcome you and guide you in discovering and exploring the vast riches of the area. Whether you are on your own, a couple, a family or a group (professionals, schoolchildren or others), we can adapt to your needs and preferences. Learn to read the rocks and landscapes that surround us, to position yourself on the scale of the Earth's history and to glimpse our human existence and evolution on the Earth. Discover the life and customs of our ancestors in these landscapes. Be able to identify plants and animals, to know their many uses and their benefits. Be surprised by a work of art inspired by these landscapes and take a moment to wonder, to ponder. It is a means of sharing with you a whole ecosystem through a multi-faceted interpretation of telling an amazing story of an amazing land. Organised "Discovery Offers & Packages" are available at the Promenade Museum and in the UNESCO Geopark area.

Revitalising And Developing The Territory With A Planned, Coherent And Coordinated Sustainable Development

The actions carried out by the Haute-Provence UNESCO Global Geopark aim to encourage real local initiatives that are thorougly thought through and sustainable.
To this end, the key actors and stakeholders (producers, accommodation-providers, outdoor activity professionals) are committed to a process of #5partnership with the Haute-Provence UNESCO Global Geopark in order to raise the overall quality of what our territory has to offer.

The aim is also to encourage links between all these local actors, stakeholders and partners. Working together allows us to implement an overall strategy that remains coordinated and consistent with a forward-looking vision of the territory.

Develop And Promote The Territory's International Visibility

#6Haute-Provence UNESCO Global Geopark is a member of several networks at different levels :
at a National level (#7a member of the National Committee of French Geoparks),
at a European level ((#8a member of the European Geopark Network),
and at an International level (#9a member of the Global Geopark Network).
This involvement allows us to participate in annual professional conferences and meetings to discuss and share policies of best practices as well as discussions to concieve and plan new collective projects.

  • The Haute-Provence UNESCO Global Geopark Team regularly produces promotional advertising campaigns for various Media Channels and Networks;

  • An "Erasmus+" Geopark Exchange Programme bringing together four European Geoparks, technicians from the Haute-Provence Geopark were sent to the Lesvos Geopark for training in fossil casting, and sharing of geological materials between Geoparks have enabled the installation of exhibitions, such as the new exhibition at the Promenade Museum on the French UNESCO Geoparks.

The aim is to enable the local communities and inhabitants of the Geopark territory to rediscover a strong affinity with their Geopark territory, as well as ensuring a certain pride and a sense of meaning in living and working in the territory of their Geopark. The UNESCO Geopark aims to be a vital catalyst for projects and for the future.