sites could then be included under the geopark umbrella by being candidates for the international network. In 2014 the creation of other regions besides the EGN was allowed and encouraged, permitting geoparks to fulfill their declared global nature. Etymology and usage of geopark Ge- or geo- is a word-formative prefix derived from the ancient Greek word for "Earth." Due to the use of ancient Greek and Latin words to form international scientific vocabulary, geo- might appear in any modern language of any type by the process of compounding. Since geo- is well known in most modern languages it is especially amenable to word production, the impromptu manufacture of words of self-evident meaning. Geopark and all its associated new geo- words began as produced neologisms but are fast becoming legitimate scientific compounds. Produced words are often open to interpretation: they mean whatever the writer intended them to mean or whatever the reader interpreted them to mean. Eventually the word receives a common understanding that can be dictionary-defined. "Geopark" is right at that point. Henriques and Brilha, after listing four interpretations not to be allowed now, cite features that must be present in the application of "geopark:" a development plan, a geoheritage, conservation, and sustainability. These are features that must receive the credibility of the international organizations certifying the park as a geopark, without which certification they cannot be scientific geoparks. The overall qualification, therefore, is that they must be certified as geoparks by the accepted international organizations. No certification, no geopark. The innovation of geo-compounds is neither new or recent, the most ancient perhaps being the geo-metria, "earth measurement," of ancient Greece. There have been a smattering of "Earth" words ever since. Geo-logia is a relative newcomer, in mediaeval Latin "the study of earthly things" (such as law) in contrast to divine things. It was preempted to refer to the 18th century topics of fossils and rock stratification. Most geo-compounds come from the 19th and early 20th century. Geo- means "Earth" rather than "geological," which would be redundant. After a floruit of international exploration, scientific research, and park-building in the later 19th century, the world wars represent a sharp decline of conservation and tourism, as the goals of war are opposite those of peace. Even the League of Nations, predecessor of the United Nations, did not unite. The last world war saw the irrecoverable destruction of national heritages and the terrible