928 



43 



totally assured. Appointments to the IS-member Board are made by UNESCO 

 in consultation with the president of the lUGS; the Union apparently 

 does have the final say in the appointments to the Scientific Committee. 

 At the end of 1984, the term of the U.S. representative on the IGCP 

 Board will expire. It is assumed that the United States will be asked 

 to nominate a replacement. In fact, the entire leadership of the Board 

 (chairman and the two vice-chairman) will be changing. It will be 

 important for the future direction of the program that qualified 

 persons be appointed. 



There is some question as to how well U.S. scientists will be 

 received in UNESCO earth sciences projects following withdrawal. Will 

 U.S. ideas for new projects be approved? Will non-U. S. project leaders 

 continue to seek the involvement of U.S. geologists? These questions 

 cannot be answered at this time, but they are sources of concern among 

 U.S. earth scientists. Even if the short-term answer was positive, in 

 the long term, U.S. withdrawal from official membership in UNESCO could 

 gradually reduce U.S. involvement in IGCP and other components of Pro- 

 gram X.l (e.g., data/mapping activities). Loss of U.S. scientific con- 

 tributions to the program will inevitably reduce its quality and could 

 have an adverse effect on interactions with Third World colleagues in 

 particular. Over the past 10 years, the IGCP has provided a significant 

 vehicle whereby scientifically valid global research projects are 

 initiated, organized, and supported. Particularly helpful has been the 

 possibility of engaging the cooperation of science communities and 

 governments in Third World countries under the UNESCO flag. The IGCP 

 projects provide useful international contacts for U.S. scientists that 

 may not be available on a bilateral basis or through purely nongovern- 

 mental forums. 



There are other elements to the UNESCO earth sciences program as 

 well as the IGCP. For example, U.S. scientists have been active in 

 developing new initiatives in the areas of mineral deposit modeling and 

 remote sensing. Without official membership in UNESCO, U.S. associa- 

 tion with these activities will have to be via the lUGS route, insofar 

 as UNESCO utilizes the Union in program planning and development. The 

 land-use planning activity is potentially an important one; the lUGS 

 Research and Development Board has developed some specific suggestions 

 for projects in this area. The work of the Lithosphere Commission (ICL) 

 is of high interest to U.S. scientists, and the recent UNESCO General 

 Conference action to increase support of the lithosphere program was 

 warmly received. Publication of data and maps is another area of high 

 interest to U.S. geologists and one in which U.S. participation is 

 important. Finally, in the area of training, the U.S. geological 

 community could be much more actively involved than it has been. U.S. 

 expertise in map production and resource assessment are just two areas 

 in which U.S. input is sought by colleagues in other parts of the 

 world. Thus, there are several non-IGCP areas of the UNESCO earth 

 sciences program in which U.S. geologists either are or could be 

 usefully involved. 



The natural hazards program (subprogram X.2) is a technically 

 competent activity from which the U.S. scientific community benefits. 

 U.S. scientists have participated actively in the work of the UNESCO 



