UIS Commission on Karst Hydrogeology and Speleogenesis

The 2nd EuroSpeleo Protection Symposium

Best Practices for Cave and Karst Protection in Europe

will be held in Muotathal (Switzerland) from the 29th to the 30th of September 2012.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee we kindly invite all speleologists and scientists related to cave and karst protection, to participate at the 2nd EuroSpeleo Protection Symposium organized jointly by the Swiss Speleological Society and the European Cave Protection Commission/European Speleological Federation and supported by the Commission for Scientific Speleology (SSS and SCNAT).

Organizing institutions

European Cave Protection Commission, European Speleological Federation
Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Spelaologie Regensdorf
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Hollochforschung
Hohlengruppe Muotathal

The aims of this symposium are to provide a platform for scientists and speleologists, active in the area of cave and karst protection, to share the state of the art and overview of their current work, to exchange views from both perspectives on best practices’ progress and applications in Europe. The outcomes of the symposia will be the first steps in developing a framework document on cave and karst protection in Europe in the context of regulations approaching already this topic i.e. IUCN Guidelines for Cave and Karst Protection, the Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) and the Recommendation on conservation of the geological heritage and areas of special geological interest (Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, 2004) and other existing conventions at European and Global level. The role of the document will be to highlight the significant role of caves and karst as archives of natural (biological, geological, geomorphological, mineralogical, paleontological, hydrological, environmental, etc.), historical and cultural (archaeological, anthropological) values.
Furthermore, it will be an efficient tool for sustaining European caves, maybe also in the construction of a European Directive or European Recommendations and Regulations concerning caves’ protection.

Symposium schedule

Saturday, 29th September: 12:00-17:30.
Sunday, 30th September: 09:00-12:00; 14:00-17:30.

Abstracts

Abstracts have to be written in English and French. To submit your abstract, please visit this page.
Abstract submission deadline: May 1st, 2012.
Abstract acceptance notification: July 1st, 2012.

All submitted abstracts will be evaluated by the Organizing Committee by June 1st 2012. The revised form of the abstracts should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later han June15th, 2012.

Registration

In order to register please visit the online registration tool of the 13th Swiss National Congress of Speleology, 7th EuroSpeleo Forum.

You are kindly asked to write in the Remarks/Recommendations section of the form that
you are interested in attending the 2nd EuroSpeleo Protection Symposium.