Comments on “UNESCO Global Geoparks in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Their Contribution to Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals” (Rosado-González et al. 2000, Geoheritage 12: 1-15, 2020)

Comments are presented on the paper by Rosado-González et al. (Geoheritage 12:36, 2020), an attempt of quantification ―based on social perception― of the performance of four Latin American UNESCO Global Geoparks against a set of Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations “2030 Agenda”). Beyond analyzing the ethical considerations and potential consequences of a study conceived as a non-independent evaluation of individual geoparks, we discuss potential weaknesses in the methodology that could lead to inaccurate results. The unavailability of key information such as the survey questionnaire, along with the non-justified choice of some statistic parameters and the use of non-probabilistic “convenience sampling,” could make the study non-reproducible and inappropriate for any generalization. This is coupled with that is the fact that the study does not consider the population differences between the “assessed” Geoparks in determining the survey sample size.