A petition raised in the Scottish Parliament in 2009 attracted strong support, and requested the establishment of a Geodiversity Duty for the efficient collection, analysis and sharing of geodiversity data to inform better decision making processes. You can view the petition on the Scottish Parliament website. The petition has now been closed, but has been important in helping to raise the profile of geodiversity within the Parliament and the Scottish Government.
At the same time, the British Geological Survey and Scottish Natural Heritage were working on a commissioned report – Scotland’s Geodiversity: Development of the Basis for a National Framework, published in February 2011:
Commissioned Report No. 417. Scotland’s Geodiversity: Development of the Basis for a National Framework
On 1 December 2010 an important conference took place in Edinburgh. Engaging with Geodiversity – why it matters was organised by the British Geological Survey, Scottish Natural Heritage, Royal Scottish Geographical Society and the British Soil Science Society.
Summary of the Conference – John E. Gordon, Hugh F. Barron, James D. Hansom, Michael F. Thomas, Engaging with geodiversity—why it matters, Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, Volume 123, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 1-6, ISSN 0016-7878, 10.1016/j.pgeola.2011.08.002.
The conference proceedings were published in the Scottish Geographical Journal, Volume 128, Issue 3-4, 2012.
All this activity, combined with the setting up of the Scottish Geodiversity Forum in March 2011, set the stage for the preparation of Scotland’s Geodiversity Charter.
Further reading:
SNH Commissioned Report 416: Strategic assessment of the value and state of Scotland’s geodiversity: links with the current policy framework
SNH Commissioned Report 373: Strategic Assessment of the Value and State of Scotland’s Geodiversity: Development of an Attributes Framework for Monitoring and Surveillance
SNH Commissioned Report 420: Strategic assessment of the value and state of Scotland’s geodiversity: an assessment of potential approaches to the economic and social evaluation of geodiversity
Scotland's Geodiversity Charter 