Biodiversity-Strategy-January-2023

47 and beyond. This area showcases not only calcareous habitats like caves and limestone pavements, but bogs, forests, lakes and more. Geodiversity Geodiversity can be described as a variety of rocks and minerals, landforms, soils and geological process. Geodiversity makes the link between landscape, people and their culture, and is one of an area’s most important natural resources. Geodiversity has not only shaped the natural and built environment but influences our biodiversity and historical and cultural heritage. It can have positive impacts for the economy and the environment, as well as on our health and wellbeing, meaning geodiversity provides essential benefits for society. An understanding of our past geological processes is critical in gaining a better understanding of the world today, as well as helping to predict what may happen in the future. These processes continue to shape the world we live in and make a significant contribution to sustainable development. Northern Ireland’s geodiversity contains nearly 1 billion years of geological history. It tells the story of a landmass that began deep in the southern hemisphere, before slowly moving northwards over time to its current position on the globe. A vast array of environments and climates, dramatic sea-level changes, erosion and deposition, changing continents and oceans, mountain building, volcanic activity and icy wastelands, all make up the pages of this long and multifaceted story book that allowed the diversity of Northern Ireland’s landscapes to become legendary. The geodiversity of our District tells a similar story and this is most well narrated, interpreted and celebrated at many sites in counties Fermanagh and Cavan within the Cuilcagh Lakelands UNESCO Global Geopark. Bogs and Heath Bogs and heath continue to be one of the most characteristic features of the Council area. There are three distinctive types of peatland ecosystems, namely: lowland raised bog , blanket bog and fens , and two heathland types in our area - upland heathland and montane heath. They were historically viewed as vast, desolate places that were used for afforestation (conifer plantations), sheep grazing and peat cutting. However, in recent years, the importance of bogs and heath for biodiversity, their value as carbon sinks and their key benefit as flood alleviation systems has been widely recognised. Bogs are also an intrinsic part of our cultural heritage and have harboured some of our most significant archaeological finds over the decades, from treasure hoards and bog bodies to ancient track ways and ritual monuments. 10.0 Appendices © Cuilcagh Lakelands UNESCO Global Geopark © Cuilcagh Lakelands UNESCO Global Geopark