If you live in a city, you don’t need to abandon civilisation completely to get a much-needed hit of nature. But sometimes, truly monumental displays of mountains, landscapes and impressive scenery are worth venturing into the wild for.
Need some inspo? Well, UNESCO’s Global Geoparks designation, which was founded back in 2015, is a great place to start, and 12 new regions have just been added to the now 241-strong list for 2026.
Selected for their combination of ‘conservation, environmental education and a sustainable approach to development, while also supporting Indigenous Peoples and local communities in promoting their culture and know-how’, these parks have been handpicked by the body’s executive board based on applications from the Global Geoparks Council.
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So, which spots have received designation? Well, one of them is in Ireland – Joyce Country and Western Lakes Global Geopark. Thanks to what’s known as the Grampian-Taconic Orogeny – which is a period of serious mountain formation that happened around 450 million years ago – this region of the Emerald Isle is blessed with great geodiversity and plenty of fossils.
Culturally, the region is a Gaeltacht, which means that the Irish language still forms an integral part of everyday interactions, and it has even influenced scientific terminology related to the area. For example, the glaciological word ‘drumlin’ comes from the irish ‘droimainn’.
Elsewhere on the list are Manantiales Serranos in southeast Uruguay, Sarawak Delta in Malaysia and Miné-Akiyoshidai Karst Plateau in Japan, but scroll on for a look at all 12 new inclusions.
The 12 new UNESCO geoparks for 2026
- Changshan UNESCO Global Geopark, China
- Mt. Siguniang UNESCO Global Geopark, China
- Terres d’Hérault UNESCO Global Geopark, France
- Nisyros UNESCO Global Geopark, Greece
- Joyce Country and Western Lakes Global Geopark, Ireland
- Miné-Akiyoshidai Karst Plateau UNESCO Global Geopark, Japan
- Lenggong UNESCO Global Geopark, Malaysia
- Sarawak Delta UNESCO Global Geopark, Malaysia
- Algarvensis UNESCO Global Geopark, Portugal
- Toratau UNESCO Global Geopark, Russia
- Dahar UNESCO Global Geopark, Tunisia
- Manantiales Serranos UNESCO Global Geopark, Uruguay
You can read more about each of these geoparks on UNESCO’s official website.
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