Laura W. Bush Traveling Fellowship

The fellowship will help fund a proposal designed by the applicant to conduct brief work in a foreign country related to the mandate of UNESCO – using education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and/or communication and information to build strong ties among nations.

The fellowship is intended for American college/university students who express an interest in international collaboration but as of yet had not been afforded many opportunities to travel abroad.

The length of time for the travel is expected to be between 4 and 6 weeks and should include interaction with individuals from other nations. During his/her travel, the recipient should be willing to participate in public diplomacy events arranged with the pertinent U.S. State Department Consulate, Mission, and/or Embassy.

Following the travel, the recipient agrees to submit a report describing experiences and analyzing objectives achieved; share his/her experiences with others; and be available to make a presentation to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO.


Application Deadlines:

• Fall 2011: Monday August 8, 2011
• Spring 2012: Monday February 6, 2012
• Fall 2012: Monday August 6, 2012

High-Level Panel on “Science, Technology and Innovation for Development”

Composed of eminent scholars, decision-makers and intellectuals from all regions of the world, the Panel is to meet twice yearly with the aim of charting new avenues for more effectively targeting the efforts of our scientific communities to addressing common challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century. A meeting is scheduled in UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in September.


In the areas of science and engineering, UNESCO has a long history focussing on capacity-building, particularly in the developing world, and on mobilizing international communities to collaborate around scientific challenges that cannot be addressed by any one nation alone. UNESCO's broader goals are to use science for poverty reduction, for sustainable development and for building a culture of peace.  More......

World Chemistry Leadership Meeting: Accelerating the Contributions of Chemistry to Sustainable Development

While celebrating the International Year of Chemistry in 2011, the World Chemistry Leadership Meeting to be held next week is to be an occasion for sharing the vision of how chemistry can make sustainable development a reality by bringing together academia, government, NGOs, and industry. The meeting is to be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.


This important meeting, as part of the 46th International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry's (IUPAC) General Assembly, will focus on activating the chemistry community to make a significant contribution at the Rio + 20 conference in 2012 organised by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

The approach of the meeting is to engage chemistry in new and innovative ways in cooperation with those with societal interests, including those from the relevant UN agencies, and those from industry who will develop the key technologies for tomorrow. More.....

U.S.A. Reelected to UNESCO IOC Executive Council

During the 26th Session of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) General Assembly meeting, the U.S. was reelected to the IOC Executive Council. This extends the U.S. term on the Council to 2013.


Find out more about some of the activities the U.S. has worked on as a member of the IOC Executive Council here.

Вы хотите пойти к Moscow

As chairs of the Intergovernmental Council of UNESCO’s Information for All Program, the Russian National Commission for UNESCO is helping to organize a conference on the Preservation of Digital Information in the Information Society. The Conference organizers have invited an American representative to attend.


Conference attendees must cover travel/room/board on their own, but the registration is free.

This event runs from Mon 10/3 - Wed 10/5. If you are interested in representing the U.S. at this conference, or if you know someone who is an expert in this field who might be interested - please let me know. First taker gets the slot.

You can find more information about this conference here.

The UNESCO Courier: How youth drive change

The International Year of Youth (August 2010 – August 2011) turned out to be more revolutionary than expected. At the beginning of 2011, young people rose up in Tunisia and then in Egypt, and the movement spread to other countries in the region, also rousing countries in Europe such as Spain.  Elsewhere in the world, youth are mobilizing for a range of causes, as varied as the means they use. Much more involved than we tend to think, young people have decided to take things in hand. And in this issue of the Courier, it is they who are speaking out, expressing their concerns and explaining their actions.

To read this issue please click here (PDF-56 pages)

Cover "How youth drive change" of the UNESCO Courier (July - September, 2011) - © UNESCO 

• Young people in the world: So different and so alike, Monique Coleman
• Mobile revolution, Gigi Ibrahim
• Spring of outrage, Alfredo Trujillo Fernandez
• Miracle Weapons, Serge Amisi
• When poetry is louder than a bomb,Nate Marshall
• Moonlight stars, Carol Natukunda
• A young sughar, Noshan Abbas
• Rebels with a cause, Jens Lubbadeh
• Prescriptions for a sick planet, Zhao Ying
• Green architecture, Carlos Bartesaghi Koc

OUR GUEST

• Revolution: one of the great feats of civilization, Khaled Youssef

MILESTONES

• UNESCO welcomes, Hillary Clinton, Ban Ki-moon, Forest Whitaker, Shashi Tharoor...

World of Science Vol 9 N° 3 [July–September 2011]

IN FOCUS2 From the Dark Ages to the Green Ages

NEWS10 An Arab network for converging technologies 
10 Launch of pan-African parliamentary science forum 
11 Oil prospection suspended in Virunga National Park 
12 A tectonic map of Africa 
13 China hosting centre on ocean dynamics and climate

INTERVIEW14 Michael Dittmar on the future of nuclear power

HORIZONS17 S mall is beautiful
20 Saved by their ancestors

IN BRIEF24 Agenda
24 New Releases

Direct link A World of Science Vol 9 N°3 (document PDF)

“Information Literacy Indicators and Government Action recommendations”

UNESCO meeting in Puerto Rico 11 August

“Information Literacy Indicators and Government Action recommendations” is the name of this International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Off-site Session, organised by the IFLA Information Literacy Section and the UNESCO Information for All Program. It takes place on August 11, 2011 at the Universidad Politécnica de Puerto Rico (377 Ponce de León Ave. Hato Rey, PR 00918 San Juan, Puerto Rico).

The themes of this full-day meeting are:

• Information Literacy Indicators (in the morning) and
• Government Action Recommendations (in the afternoon).

The IFLA website has full information on the meeting and allows online registration.

La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site:
A World Heritage Site  in Puerto Rico  © Ulises Jorge

UNESCO Releases Report of Expert Meeting

UNESCO) has released the outcome of the meeting on the future of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), held , in Paris, France on 10 June 2011. The meeting’s outcome calls for representation of key stakeholders and recommends elements of a knowledge generation strategy. Read more....

© Joly Carlos IPBES Experts Meeting, UNESCO, Paris, 10 June 2011

PROFILES: AMERICANS AT UNESCO

Dr. Raymond Wanner

The U.S. Mission to UNESCO has opened a facet for its website highlighting Americans working at or with UNESCO. One of the first to be highlighted is Ray Wanner. Ray, the Senior Vice President of Americans for UNESCO, also currently serves as Senior Adviser on UNESCO Affairs to the United Nations Foundation, and Governing Board Chair of UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). Read an interview with Dr. Wanner!

Opening of the UNESCO-related Center on the use of Space Technologies for Cultural and Natural heritage"

On 25 July 2011 the UNESCO space partner, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, opens an International Center under the auspices of UNESCO.

© Cnes 2009 - Distribution Astrium Services / Spot Image.
The Ilulissat Icefjord monitored from space.

The new established International Center under the auspices of UNESCO is being hosted by the Centre of Earth Observation and Digital Earth (CEODE). CEODE is an outstanding institution of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that has, under the same roof, activities related to satellite data reception, satellite date processing and the Digital Earth initiative. This International Center, established in collaboration with UNESCO’s Natural Sciences Sector, will bring to UNESCO all the expertise and know-how of CEODE with the aim of strengthening inter-sectorial cooperation.  Read more.....

Iraq launches groundwater database to reduce uncertainty in the country’s water supply

Map produced using
MAPS'N'FACTS The Learning Company Software

Representatives of the government, academia and the international community recently met at a high-level gathering in Baghdad to inaugurate the country’s first centralized groundwater database and commission the next phase of the multi-million dollar initiative led by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The seminar officially revealed positive phase one results of the nationwide initiative launched in 2010 by UNESCO. Read more.....

Check out UNESCO report on water resources in Iraq!

15th International Conference for Women Engineers and Scientists: Leadership, Innovation, Sustainability

The International Conference for Women Engineers and Scientists (ICWES) has been held every three years since 1964 and provides an important forum for the exchange of information and ideas for women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This year, ICWES is being held in Adelaide, Australia, on 19-22 July under the theme Leadership, Innovation, Sustainability. Read more.....

UNESCO Clubs to meet in Viet Nam in August

The Vietnam Federation of UNESCO Associations has been authorized to host the 8th World Congress of the World Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centers and Associations (WFUCA) in Hanoi from 18th to 22nd August 2011.

Check out:

• The website of the World Federation
• The press release announcing the meeting
• The UNESCO website supporting UNESCO Clubs, Centers and Associations

The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO identifies three UNESCO clubs in the United States. While there are an estimated 3,800 clubs in 80 nations worldwide, the number in the United States is quite small, probably due to the fact that the United States withdrew from UNESCO for 18 years. Apparently, only Americans for UNESCO of the U.S. UNESCO clubs remained active during all of that interval. With the reentry of the United States into UNESCO in 2003, it would seem time to renew and revive the network of U.S. UNESCO clubs.

Left to Right: Guy Djoken of the UNESCO Center of Peace, Eric Woodard of the U.S. Naitonal Commission for UNESCO, and Andre Varchaver of Americans for UNESCO.

Guy Djoken, the President of the UNESCO Center for Peace in Frederick Maryland has recently been named to chair a working group to help coordinate the UNESCO clubs in the United States. Read more...

For life, for the future - Biosphere reserves and climate change, a collection of good practice case studies

UNESCO has released a publication that demonstrates, through a selection of 28 case studies from around the world, that UNESCO biosphere reserves are ideal places to test, evaluate and implement comprehensive climate change policies.

The publication underlines that while climate change is the dominant challenge to sustainable development, it is not the only challenge. It underscores that none of the other well-known challenges to sustainability has disappeared, including poverty, malnutrition, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functions, demographic change, desertification, water scarcity, urbanization, an altered nitrogen cycle, pollution, etc., and argues that any isolated policy implementation focusing only on climate change "is likely to do more harm than good." One of the report's main messages is that UNESCO biosphere reserves around the globe can be suitable places for testing or implementing new, comprehensive policies on climate change mitigation and adaptation, once all other variables need to be included into the equation.

UNESCO Joins Hands With Ford Motor Company To Drive Awareness Of Conservation And Environmental Grants

Source: Middle East Events

Entries Now Open For 2011 Ford Grants Offering Funding For Local Environmental Groups. A Total Of US$100,000 Available For Grass Roots Green Initiatives In GCC And Levant. US$1.1million Granted To 130+ Local Environmental Initiatives Across The GCC And Levant Countries Since 2000.

Read more!

New UNESCO project aims to improve early warning for floods in Pakistan

As part of its efforts to help Pakistan tackle natural disasters, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partners have launched a project to upgrade the early warning system in the South Asian nation, which last year experienced the worst flooding in 80 years.
Heavy monsoon rains in July 2010 battered the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Baluchistan, causing floods that affected over 20 million people, killed nearly 2,000 and made 1.9 million homeless.

The project, implemented by UNESCO, in cooperation with the Pakistani Government and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, aims to, among other things, reduce the human and socio-economic impact of the floods and encourage the development of safer dwellings close to flood plains.

Read more!

The U.S. Had Great Hopes for UNESCO When UNESCO Was Founded

President Harry Truman believed UNESCO could make "the greatest contribution in the history of the world to the welfare of the world as a whole", as quoted in the Miami News article covering the meeting of the U.S. National Commission on Educational, Scientific and Cultural Co-operation (now known as the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO) on September 27, 1946.

According to that article, the National Commission made several recommendations:

Brian O’Dwyer appointed to UNESCO commission

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has appointed New York Irish-American attorney Brian O’Dwyer as Commissioner of the United States National Commission for UNESCO. The panel works with the State Department to further American participation in the United Nations Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization.

O’Dwyer, managing partner of the renowned Manhattan-based law firm of O’Dwyer and Bernstien, regularly commentates on legal issues for Fox TV, Court TV, CNBC, New York 1 and CNN en Español.

Widely known for his advocacy in support of the rights of labor unions and immigrants, he presently serves as chairman of New York’s Emerald Isle Immigration Center and Asociacion Tepeyac, which serves the city’s Mexican immigrant community.

Read more from the Irish Emigrant Online!

Happy Birthday MAB

2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program. Among planned activities is a web-based forum, in which various dimensions and activities of MAB will be addressed. The idea is to encourage contributions on what has been learned over the last four decades – what has worked and what has not worked, and why.

The MAB Program was conceived, planned and launched some four decades ago. It is science-based, with multiple stakeholders and constituencies. It combines research, education and training, demonstration and the synthesis of information for different audiences. It involves cooperation at nested scales – local, sub-national, national, regional and global. It seeks to combine "philosophical visions" and innovative concepts with collaborative problem-solving work in selected parts of the biosphere where people live and work. It is firmly based on national priorities and efforts.

The overall objective is to reconcile the conservation of biological diversity with socio-economic needs and cultural integrity – in short, sustainable development. Today, the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) includes 563 biosphere reserves in 110 countries worldwide.

The United States was an early and active member of MAB and entered some 50 locations in the worldwide network of biosphere reserves. Scientists working in those reserves were active in exchanging information with their colleagues working in reserves in other countries and in building the scientific capacity of the network. When the United States withdrew from UNESCO, for a number of years the Congress appropriated funds to the State Department to continue U.S. scientific cooperation with MAB. However, in later years not only were those contributions no longer provided, but the U.S. National Committee for MAB was disbanded and the State Department stopped participating in MAB activities. The U.S. National Commission for UNESCO has recommended that the United States return to full involvement in MAB, and it is hoped that the Congress will soon support that reengagement.

One of the U.S. Biosphere Reserves

Americans Honored at UNESCO IOC

UNESCO recently announced that three Americans would be honored with the IOC 50th Anniversary Commemorative medal for their exemplary dedication to the IOC, it’s mission, and continuing support for IOC activities.

The Americans being honored are James Baker, Louis Brown and Sydney Levitus.

You can read more about them here.

James Baker

Louis Brown

Sydney Levitus

American film star Forest Whitaker's new role: UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador

Forest Whitaker with
UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova will designate American actor, director and producer Forest Whitaker as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation. The nomination ceremony will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 21 June, at 6 p.m.

The designation comes in recognition of Mr Whitaker’s humanitarian and artistic commitment. This is most visible in his projects, such as “Better Angels”, a film about Ugandan child soldiers or “Common Destiny”, a documentary about the common goals of achieving peace and mutual understanding, and the power of education in promoting peace and reconciliation between and within communities.

Forest Whitaker was born in 1961 in Texas, USA. He studied opera in California to become a tenor singer but decided to focus on film acting eventually and moved to study in London. Since his film debut in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” in 1982, he has been one of Hollywood’s most accomplished figures. His best known performances include his roles as jazzman Charlie Parker in “Bird”, for which he was awarded the Palme d’Or in Cannes for best actor in 1989, and as Ugandan leader Idi Amin in “Last King of Scotland”, for which he received an Academy Award in 2006.

Interview with George Papagiannis

The U.S. Mission to UNESCO sat down with George Papagiannis, the Officer in charge of the UNESCO Office in Baghdad, to find out how he ended up in Iraq, what work he is doing there with UNESCO, and why UNESCO matters. This is one of a series of interviews with Americans working in UNESCO.

World Water Day 2011 – 22 March

Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge

The objective of World Water Day 2011 is to focus international attention on the impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialization and uncertainties caused by climate change, conflicts and natural disasters on urban water systems.

This year’s theme, Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge, aims to spotlight and encourage governments, organizations, communities, and individuals to actively engage in addressing the challenge of urban water management.

• Message from the Director-General
• Full story & UNESCO events
• Access the Day’s official website

Jillian Banfield profiled in L’Oréal-UNESCO video

Jillian Banfield, UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science, of environmental science policy and management and of materials science, was one of five women honored on March 3 at the 13th Annual L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards ceremony in Paris. The elaborate festivities included the showing of a video interview with Banfield, who discussed her research and her philosophy of science. Read more...

The Economist magazine interviews UNESCO Chief Irina Bokova

U.S., Caribbean to test tsunami warning system

"Following the devastating tsunami that struck Japan, the U.S. and 32 other countries are preparing to participate in the first full-scale simulated tsunami alert exercise in the Caribbean, UNESCO says.

"Caribbean countries will receive an alert concerning a fictitious earthquake of 7.6 magnitude off the coast of the U.S. Virgin Islands."

Read more of the South Florida Business Journal article!


Read the UNESCO news article on the simulation!

Check out the UNESCO tsunami program!

The University of Puerto Rico provides this great video on the threat of tsunamis in the Caribbean.

Congratulations to Jillian Banfield

Jillian F. Banfield, a UC Berkeley biogeochemist, geomicrobiologist and professor of materials science and engineering, will receive two prestigious awards -- the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science and the L'Oreal-UNESCO "For Women in Science" award -- for her groundbreaking work on how microbes alter rocks and interact with the natural world.

UNESCO suspends cooperation with Libya

Source: The Associated Press via the Washington Post.

UNESCO's chief says the organization is stopping all cooperation with Libya's government and suspending a partnership with a charity group headed by Moammar Gadhafi's son.


The Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization says director-general Irina Bokova took the measures after recent U.N. actions critical of Libya's human rights record.

America, the UN and the Future of Communications

"In May of this year, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and other UN organizations such as UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD, are scheduled to convene in Geneva to talk about regulation of the growth and development of the Internet......

"The fight over ICANN (the Corporation for Assigned Names and Number) -- a southern California corporation operating with a license from the U.S. Department of Commerce, which began in a conference in Tunis, Tunisia in the Mediterranean, sponsored by the UN and its sister agencies -- was only the opening salvo. It is not surprising that the idea of forming a special international agency to regulate ICANN failed at Tunis as the agenda and impetus for change was too narrow. This may change as nations around the world awaken to the importance of creating a robust communications infrastructure. They will likely be less dependent and less willing to accept what has been considered a one-way flow of information and communications goods and services from the United States.

"National regulators and policy makers worldwide are looking for some way to harness Internet growth and development, and of course, control the flow of communications in the world. Not surprisingly, concerns with the U.S.'s dominance of media flow do not extend to the developing nations alone. Europe and other developed nations have expressed frustrations too.

"So what will be the U.S. position? Indeed, what if anything is the U.S. doing to meet the challenges and concerns of the rest of the world? It isn't clear."

Read more!

UNESCO does not fare well in UK review

The Department for International Development of the United Kingdom has just completed a review of the multilateral agencies it has been funding. Here is the summary table:

DfID also provided a comparison chart among the multilateral agencies that were evaluated:

The development objectives of the United Kingdom are very similar to those of the United States. The top graph indicates that. in the opinion of the evaluators, the organization has considerable room for improvement, The lower graph indicates that UNESCO was judged almost uniquely weak among a wide variety of development agencies.

The Government of the United Kingdom decided on the basis of this information to continue funding UNESCO, but to impose "special measures". Here is the statement it provided in its document "Taking Forward the Findings of the UK Multilateral Aid Review":

UNESCO contributes to a range of UK government objectives, including monitoring progress on Education for All. The UK’s membership of UNESCO also brings broader benefits to the UK, in Culture, Heritage, Education and Science. UNESCO’s new leadership team is committed to reform. DFID will continue to support UNESCO, including by funding the core assessed contribution, which will be about £16m in each of the next two years. DFID will reassess progress towards improved effectiveness, with other government departments, in autumn 2012. DFID is discussing with UNESCO, and its member states, what measures need to be taken to urgently improve its performance. 

Priorities include:-

• Greater transparency
• A more focused, evidence based programme
• A focus on controlling transaction, administration and other costs
• A major improvement in results based management.

If these measures are not implemented satisfactorily and performance does not improve, then the UK will consider whether it should continue to be a member of UNESCO, or whether there are more effective ways of supporting our objectives on education, culture and heritage.

Click here to see the evaluation and the reply from UNESCO.

Call for nominations: UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize

UNESCO is inviting nominations for the fourth award of the UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize. This invitation is extended to all Member States, in consultation with their National Commissions, as well as to international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) maintaining official relations with UNESCO and whose work is in the field of preservation and conservation of documentary heritage.

Click here to go to the website with full information!

The Economist on January 13 published an appreciation of Gene Smith who died in December, 2010. Tibetan monasteries had collected manuscripts over some 1500 years, until the Chinese occupation of Tibet when monasteries "were ransacked and destroyed. Not only books were burned, but also the carved wooden blocks from which they were printed. Fleeing Tibetans tried to save the texts" as they sought asylum in other countries, but many were lost; the rest were disbursed widely in the places of sanctuary.

Over five decades, Mr Smith made it his business to put Tibetan literature back together. He did it more or less single-handedly, fired by his love of the language and the culture and aided by a brain that rapidly became an encyclopedia of lineages, sutras, lives of lamas, and the history and ownership of every book he came across......

Armed only with fistfuls of rupees and with letters of introduction from his Tibetan teacher, Deshung Rinpoche, to various lamas, he trawled through Indian libraries and then travelled into the hills. There, though still fearful of exposing their treasures, exiled Tibetan monks showed him the texts they had; and, with the money he gave them, printed more. In the end the PL480 programme saved 8,000 books, each of which was printed in 20 or so copies for American centres of research.....

In 1999 Mr Smith set up the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Centre, first in Boston and then in New York, and set about putting his 12,000-volume collection, the largest anywhere, online. By his death he and his team had scanned 7m pages of text and had made CDs of files, such as the 110-volume kangyur, or teachings of the Buddha, which were too huge to download. As for the books themselves, he left them to a university in China: the place where, despite everything, he felt Tibetan Buddhism would eventually flourish again.

Perhaps Mr. Smith merits a posthumous award of the Jikji Memory of the World Prize.

UNESCO: Enhancing flood management in Pakistan

© UN Photo/Evan Schneider - 

A view of heavy flooding caused by monsoon 

rains in Punjab Province, Pakistan (2010)

Last July’s catastrophic floods in Pakistan underlined the country’s need to better understand, predict and manage hydrological extremes – floods and droughts. To help strengthen Pakistan’s capacities, UNESCO is organizing a workshop at the National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) in Islamabad from 24 to 26 January.

• UNESCO's Pakistan Flood Response
• UNESCO's International Hydrological Program

International Year of Chemistry 2011

Irina Bokova's, Director General of UNESCO, video message for the Opening of the International Year of Chemistry (IYC) 2011.

The Official International Launch Ceremony for IYC 2011 will take place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 27-28 January 2011. The agenda includes an international seminar, an exhibition, and other related social and cultural events.

• Full story
• Official launch ceremony
• You can participate, too: see how
• Where would we be without chemistry?
• Art and Science of Chemistry: exhibition, film, concert

2011 -- The International Year of Forests

Preparations for the observance of Forests 2011 are taking place at the national, regional and international levels.


To celebrate Forests 2011, the United Nations Forum on Forests Secretariat (UNFFS) is working in collaboration with the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival to organise the International Forest Film Festival (IFFF).

IFFF winning films will be presented to delegates of all 192 countries at the launch of the International Year of Forests 2011 at United Nations Headquarters, New York in February, 2011. The launch of the International Year will take place as part of the official program of the ninth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF). Subsequently, the winning films will also be screened around the world.

The International Forest Film Festival aims to raise awareness on the importance of forests, their relationship with people and the planet we share, and consequently, to inspire a sense of personal responsibility/stewardship for a greener, more equitable, sustainable future.

It's the International Year of Youth (IYY)!

The new edition of A World of Science is out

Vol. 9, No. 1
January–March 2011

In focus
     Where would we be without chemistry?
news

• engineer shortage a threat to development, says report
• earthquake monitoring stations for nepal
• the best weapon against cancer: a healthy lifestyle
• experts advocate geoengineering research programme
• Groundwater to alleviate iraq’s water shortages
• ten medals in nanoscience and nanotechnologies
• eleven sites added to Global Geoparks network
• Countries sign up for nagoya Biodiversity Compact
• experts call for assessment of microplastics in oceans

IntervIew


     Jean-Christophe Balouet investigates an environmental crime

HorIzons

• science without borders
• Biodiversity in a kit

In BrIef

• Diary
• new releases

Editorial: The United States should support the the Arnold Schönberg Estate for Memory of the World

Schönberg Hall at UCLA

The Government of Austria has proposed the Arnold Schönberg estate for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register for 2011. I strongly recommend that the United States Government join with Austria in sponsoring this action. Arnold Schönberg sought refuge from the Nazi government by moving to the United States in the 1930s. He lived in Los Angeles from 1934 until his death in 1951. He taught at both the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. He had an great influence on many composers worldwide, but notably during his time in the United States he taught and influenced many American composers.

Each of the universities named the building housing its music department after him. There exists an archive of materials related to his time in the United States at UCLA, and an archive of his correspondence at the Library of Congress. The major archive of his work was housed at the University of Southern California for a quarter of a century before the Arnold Schönberg family moved it to the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna. The U.S.C. library in its history of the archive states:

During its 25-year existence, the Institute Archive supported the research of thousands of researchers and scholars--hosting an average of 86 on-site researchers per year (whose average stay was 3 days each), and responding to more than 570 off-site requests for information per year (about 200 letters, 150 telephone inquiries, 90 faxes, and 140 e-mails). The Archive also provided hundreds of thousands of pages of photocopies and thousands of photographs (as well as other materials such as books, films, videos, and microfilm) to users over this period of time.

I would recommend that the United States delegation to UNESCO discuss the possibility of a joint sponsorship of the archive with the Austrian delegation, considering adding the archives in the United States to those in Austria for inclusion in the Representative List.

John Daly
The opinion presented in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Americans for UNESCO.