Guidelines for cave and karst protection : second edition

These guidelines provide an update and expansion of the original Guidelines for Cave and Karst Protection, published in 1997. The original guidelines were primarily concerned with geoheritage, and while this remains an important consideration in this second edition, it also covers the biological issues involved in cave and karst conservation. The protection of surface and underground karst ecosystems is particularly relevant to Goal 15 of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss). These guidelines also have relevance for Sustainable Development Goal 6 (Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all), as ~10% of the world's population gain their water supplies fro karst, either from discrete springs or from karst groundwater. The new guidelines build and expand on the Guidelines for geoconservation in protected and conserved areas (Crofts et al.,2020), by specifically considering the protection and conservation of geodiversity, geoheritage and ecology in karst and cave areas, wherever they occur.