The Scottish Geodiversity Forum has published an Ethical Rock Collection policy for Scotland, which highlights that collection of rock samples should be conducted in a way that preserves the aesthetic qualities of rock exposures, does not damage or destroy their geoheritage value for future generations and complies with the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, the Scottish Fossil Code, and the Scottish Core Code. This Ethical Rock Collection Policy has the support of all key agencies and university departments within Scotland. This policy is part of our work to promote the value of geodiversity as highlighted by Scotland’s Geodiversity Charter. The new policy is supported by the Rock Damage Scotland facebook page, which seeks to highlight good and bad examples of ethical rock collection and encourage discussion. We hope this policy will play a part in supporting efforts by academic publishers, instigated by the Geological Society of London, to require authors of scientific papers to state that all rock materials have been collected ethically.
The policy is available at http://scottishgeodiversityforum.org/charter/ethical-rock-collection/
Comments and questions are welcome, and can be directed to Angus Miller, chair@scottishgeodiversityforum.org.
Scotland's Geodiversity Charter 