The African Geoparks Network “AGN” was created by the African Association of Women in Geosciences “AAWG, www.aawg.org” during the pre-congress of its fifth conference held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in May 2009. The AGN aims to identify, promote, and advise on the importance and preservation of geological sites in Africa in collaboration with other stakeholders. This initiative has got the support of IUGS, GSAf and many other national organizations. In that Framework, the AAWG and the AGN in collaboration with UNESCO Cairo Office organized the First International Conference on African and Arabian Geoparks which was held in El Jadida (Morocco) from the 20th to the 28th November, 2011.
This First International Conference on African and Arabian Geoparks was attend by 100 paticipants from 31 countries and had received 87 abstracts from 39 countries repesenting the five continents. The pre-conference course was attented by 38 participants from 19 countries and its related post-conference field trip was attended by 42 participants from 16 countries.