Editorial from the Editor-in-Chief

Initiatives to protect the Earth system in several countries are known since the seventeenth century, mostly dealing with the preservation of fossils, caves, and other geomorphological features. The word “Geoconservation”, which best describes this activity, appeared and became popular in the 1990’s, together with subjects such as Geoknowledge, Geoheritage, Geotourism, Geoparks, Geodiversity, and led to the gradual development of this emerging branch of Geosciences also in Brazil. As a whole, Geoconservation includes the inventory, assessment, protection, valuation and sustainable use of geological heritage and legal initiatives, aimed at preserving or conserving geological-geomorphological sites of interest. Therefore, I am proud to open this first special issue of the Journal of the Geological Survey of Brazil – JGSB – to the Geoconservation theme. I am grateful to the Invited Editors, Marcos Antônio Leite do Nascimento (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte), Maria da Glória Motta Garcia (University of São Paulo), and Kátia Leite Mansur (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), recognized researchers who accepted the task of compiling this edition, and the reviewers, who brought their expertise to make the published version of the articles to be the best possible. And, obviously, the authors who accepted JGSB as the venue for publishing your research, without which this special volume would not be possible, you are most acknowledged. I hope the readers enjoy this special issue, and that it can contribute to the dissemination of Geoconservation to the geoscientific community.