Preface of the Editors - Musée national d'histoire naturelle

C. Ries & Y. Krippel Preface of the Editorsprogramme). Under the boom line, as everybodyagreed, this atypical method was of great success.It is quite unusual that the last speaker of the daycan find himself in front of a full auditory, mostpeople having aended all day long. Of coursethis fact is also due to the excellent quality of thecontributions and to the fact that the programmewas reliable, all speakers perfectly respecting theirallocated time.We are especially thankful to Handrij Härtel andJan Čeřovský who draw general conclusions atthe conference closure and called for joining thesandstone community and for meeting again at thenext conference which will be held in Poland in acouple of years. Jan Čeřovský draw the aentionto the range of activities and working groupsof the IUCN and proposed that the sandstonecommunity should create an IUCN-workinggroup covering the issues of sandstone areas.On Friday May 27, aer the second morningsession, the organizers were happy to presentthe book about the Petite-Suisse area and to offera copy to each participant (Fig. 2). The bookcomprises 251 pages and covers all the topics ofthe conference (Krippel 2005).Aer the conference closure, the tourist train'Benni' took the participants to a guided visit of thehydro electrical power plant SEO near Stolzembourg.The conference dinner took place the sameevening in the Hotel Victor Hugo in Vianden.Post-conference excursionThe post-conference excursion took the participantsby bus to the German part of the Luxembourgsandstone area near Ernzen and Ferschweiler.Again the participants were split into twogroups according to the conference languagesEnglish and French.Fig. 2: Presentation of the book about the Petite-Suissearea in front of the conference venue Larei, May 272005. Photo: Milkuláš Radek.Fig. 3: Post-conference excursion, Luxembourg-city,view on the Alzette valley and the Grund district, May28 2005. Photo: Jiří Adamovič.Aer a glance at the visitor centre 'NaturerkundungszentrumTeufelsschlucht', a trail took theparticipants through sandstone formations anddeciduous woods to the valley of the Prüm andthe 'Irreler Wasserfälle', small waterfalls caused byenormous rock boulders.The aernoon was spent in Luxembourg-citycovering geological, historical and botanical topics(Fig. 3). The excursion ended with a visit of twomajor museums, the National Museum of NaturalHistory and the National Museum of History andArt.The guides were: Georges Bechet, Alain Faber,Anne Hauzeur, François Valoeau and HolgerWeber.ConclusionOn behalf of the organizers we thank all theparticipants having aended the conference andespecially those who have contributed to theprogramme excellence with a high diversity andquality of oral communications and poster presentations.The magnificent weather conditions, the gorgeousconference venue and last but not least the sociabilityand sincerity of the participants made thissymposium a remarkable event that will not beforgoen soon.The conference showed clearly the similitude ofthe different sandstone landscapes scaered allover Europe and the similarities of the problematicof conservation of natural and cultural heritagesin the different regions. By gathering participantsof other countries, the Sandstone Community wasenlarged and there was a clear consensus to joinefforts in the future.10Ferrantia • 44 / 2005