Leading researcher of the Institute of Geography named after acad. H.Aliyev of the MSEAR, PhD Rovshan Kerimov, researcher Nazim Gerayly and doctoral student of the institute Aynur Guluyeva took part in the First Coordination Meeting of the "Caucasus Geoparks Network Program" held in Baku by the Caucasus Environmental Network (a network of non-governmental organizations in the field of environmental protection in the Caucasus).

The event was attended by the representative of the National Geoparks Center Vakhtang Kocharadze and the coordinator of the geoparks project in Azerbaijan and the head of the Center for Environmental Research of the Khazar University, PhD Rovshan Abbasov, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the National Program for Azerbaijan of the Swiss Cooperation Office, representatives of research institutes, universities and non-governmental organizations.

The purpose of the meeting was to consider the existing potential and opportunities for developing a unified network of geoparks in the South Caucasus, to study the opinions of stakeholders who can contribute to this process as experts, and to exchange views. The stakeholders present at the meeting shared their views on biodiversity conservation, sustainable tourism development and cultural heritage conservation. It should be noted that the Caucasus Geoparks Network project in the South Caucasus is being implemented by CENN (Caucasus Environmental NGO Network) with the financial support of the Development and Cooperation Agency.