ABOUT IGCP, UNESCO AND IUGS

UNESCO - the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded on 16 November 1945. For this specialized United Nations agency, it is not enough to build classrooms in devastated countries or to publish scientific breakthroughs. Education, Social and Natural Science, Culture and Communication are the means to a far more ambitious goal : to build peace in the minds of men.

The IGCP is a cooperative enterprise of UNESCO and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and has been stimulating comparative studies in the Earth Sciences since 1972. After three decades of successful work, the "International Geological Correlation Programme" continued, as "International Geoscience Programme". Up to this day, IGCP has made research results available to a huge number of scientists around the world with about 400 projects.

IGCP provides several thousands of scientists from about 150 countries with a multi-discipline platform to exchange knowledge and methodology on geological problems of global importance. Special focus is given to projects related to a safer environment, the relationship between natural geological factors and health problems, biodiversity, climate change, mineral and groundwater resources extraction. IGCP promotes collaborative projects with a special emphasis on the benefit provided to society, capacity-building and the advancement and sharing of knowledge between developed and developing nations.