Carpathian-Balkan Geological Association XVI Congress [antikvár]

GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE : OUR ENVIRONMENT AND THE ROLE OF UNESCO Eder, F. Wolfgang, UNESCO, 1, me Miollis, 75732 Paris Cedex 15, France e-mail : w.ederiinesco.org The 1992 "United Nations Conference on Environment and Development" (UNCED), the so-called Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, called for the integration of enlianced socio-economic development with conserving a healthy enviromnent. Development must become sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present generation without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their own. Agenda 21 provides the international programme of action for taking this new course of sustainable development. It requires a change in national policies and a redefinition of priorities in international co-operation, including the implementation of recent international conventions, like the "Convention on Biological Diversity" or the UN "Convention to Combat Desertification and Drought", and collaborative activities connected with "Global Observing Systems" or in the area of natural hazards reduction in support of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). The first prerequisite of sustainable development is education for all, followed by the advancement, sharing and application of scientific knowledge. Only an mfonned public and a trained workforce can introduce the new sustainable production and consumption patterns required. Environment and development issues are by definition complex and multidisciplinary and require responses built on similar lines. UNESCO's unique broad mandate and expertise in the sciences, education, culture and communication, enable the Organization to respond to the requirements of sustainable development, to enliance interdisciplinary scientific work and to increase cooperation between all areas of its competence. One should like to recall that UNESCO has been focussing on environment and development issues for the past 50 years. Milestones include the launching of the Arid Zone Programme in 1951, the creation of the "Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission" (IOC) in 1960 and the International Hydrological Decade in 1965, succeeded by the