979 



MAJOR PROGRAM Xt 

 THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT AND TERRESTRIAL AND MARINE RESOURCES 



X.l; The Earth's Crust and its Mineral and Energy Resources 



Annual (SOOO) 



Regular Program (84-85) 



of which staff and indirect costs 



of which project costs 

 Regular Program and overhead (64.3%) 

 Other sources 



Overall comment on X.l ; In general, the earth science program of 

 UNESCO is well-focused and conducted in a sound manner. The Interna- 

 tional Geological Correlation Program is one of the most productive and 

 respected of the science activities sponsored by UNESCO. This is due 

 in large part to the fact that the scientific integrity of the program 

 is assured through joint sponsorship by UNESCO and the nongovernmental 

 International Union of Geological Science (lUGS), an ICSU union. The 

 major concern is to ensure no loss of support for the IGCP, the inter- 

 disciplinary research on the earth's crust and the data/mapping activ- 

 ities. In all cases, project support could be significantly enhanced. 

 Additional IGCP project support will permit increased involvement by 

 Third World countries and needed attention to more interdisciplinary 

 activities. A 25% loss to the total regular program budget, including 

 UNESCO staff costs, is on the order of $600,000; with the overhead 

 charge added, that figure is on the order of $900,000. Given the value 

 of the program and its presently under-funded situation, a total U.S. 

 contribution of $1.5 million is suggested. 



Alternative Option 1 : Provide the program costs (project, plus staff) 

 for the IGCP (S200,000) and the other program elements (S400,000) to 

 UNESCO through the Funds-in-Trust or donations arrangement, as well as 

 direct support to cooperating nongovernmental and/or intergovernmental 

 organizations (e.g., ICSU/IUGS, UNEP, IAEA) coupled with support to 

 appropriate U.S. backstopping agencies (e.g., USGS , NSF, and/or the 

 National Research Council) to recommend on specific implementation/ 

 allocation and to provide continuing oversight (S900,000) for a total 

 U.S. contribution of $1.5 million. 



Alternative Option 2 ; Provide funds directly to lUGS for support of 

 the IGCP and invite the Union also to act as agent for channeling U.S. 

 support to other elements of the earth sciences program. Earmark 

 increased support for particularly needy programs such as the IGCP, 

 interdisciplinary research of the earth's crust, i.e., the lUGS-IUGG 

 Lithosphere Commission (ICL) , special programs such as the Geological 

 Applications of Remote Sensing (GARS) and mineral deposit modeling and 

 other new initiatives. Negotiations would be required with lUGS to 

 determine the overhead charges for this management task. A U.S. 



