Abstract

Geoheritage investigation and research in the direction of protection, conservation, management and reasonable exploitation of geoheritages for the sustainable socio-economic development is quite a new field in Vietnam. This new direction of research has been carried out quite successfully by Vietnamese geologists who have  obtained significant successes. Many  geoheritage sites of prominent values  have been inscribed by UNESCO as world natural heritages and global geoparks. At present, as a consequence of active mining operations, natural resources and environment are in danger. Planning of waste dumps  and mining site rehabilitation after the mine closure is very important and must be done before starting the mining operation.  The practice requires to have the “geoheritage building" mindset  right in the stage of mine planning.  Each mine or mining area must be planned so that after being mined out it can become a geoheritage site or geoheritage area which will continue being exploited to serve sustainable socio-economic development.

This paper introduces the role and actual situation of applying geoheritage  research to the sustainable development planning in our country.