The Petrified Forest is a founding member of the European Geoparks Network and since 2004 a member of the Global Geoparks Network of UNESCO.
The European Geoparks Network was established in June 2000 by four areas with exceptional geological and natural monuments.
The Founding members are the:
Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest ( Greece )
Reserve Geologique de Haute-Provence ( France )
Geopark Gerolstein / Vulkaneifel ( Germany )
Maestrazgo Cultural Park ( Spain )
The aim of the Network is cooperation, exchange of good practices and experiences, joint actions for the protection of the geological heritage, development and promotion of natural geological monuments.
In 2012 the island of Lesvos was declared a Geopark by Unesco, acknowledging its natural beauty, its geological importance and its rich cultural heritage.
In an attempt to make the school community and the population aware of what a Geopark is, the Experimental High School of Mytilene applied for an Erasmus+ (KA2) fund.
We collaborated with three schools from other European countries who share the same interests (Spain, Portugal and France). The two-year project on behalf of the Experimental High School of Mytilene ended up with the following outcomes:

❀ Geotale: A fairytale describing the genesis of the petrified forest and that of the island of Nisiopi. The geological aspect is presented simplified for the sake of a young reader.

❀ Webpage: The " four Geoparks" webpage was created by the students of the Experimental High School of Mytilene, aiming at collecting and disseminating the outcomes of the project, from all four participants, during its two-year process.

❀ Interactive games with multiple exercises (crosswords, mixed up sentences, quiz, puzzles, etc.) based on the geology, ecology and culture of the island of Lesvos.

❀ An application for tablets and smartphones. Its purpose is to serve as a digital guide to visitors of the Park area of the Petrified Forest in Sigri.

Special thanks must be granded to Dr Nikos Zouros (President of the global Geoparks Network) and the scientific staff at the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest, for their critical assistance and support throught the two-year project.