Moulin-Acevedo, Madeleine

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Notes, News & Comments 371be available in all United Nations official languages. The'Orange Book' is supplemented by a 'Manual of tests andcriteria' for the classification of goods to be transported. Asecond revised edition of this Manual will be issued soon.The Recommendations are prepared by the Committeeof Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, a sub-sidiary body of the Economic and Social Council(ECOSOC) which is serviced by the secretariat of theUnited Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE).The ECE is also responsible for the elaboration of legalinstruments regulating transport of dangerous goods byroad, rail, and inland waterways, in its Region (Europe andNorth America).UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICEUN/ECF Information OfficePalais des NationsCH-1211 Geneva 10Switzerland.Tel. (022) 917 2893Fax (022) 917 0036.Short Courses on Life-zone Ecology and Tropical DendrologyThe classification of the Earth's ecosystems and eco-complexes affects almost all ecological and geogra-phical science. Additionally, the identification of plants isclosely related to the classification of ecosystems which onland are largely characterized by their plant components.From an academic perspective both these subjects arecrucial, as they form the basis for sustainable resourcemanagement and biodiversity preservation.Dr L.R. Holdridge's Life-zone Ecology classificationsystem and Tropical Dendrology (a system to identifyforest trees) have been used by scientists and other pro-fessionals in the tropics for more than 30 years. Further-more, based on the Life-zone Ecology system, severalpractical and sound applications have been developed bythe Tropical Science Center to be used in rural develop-ment, sustainable resource management, watershed mana-gement, land-use capability, assessment of environmentalimpact, territorial zoning, and ecosystem characterizationin protected areas.Recently, the US National Atmospheric and SpaceAgency (NASA) prepared an earth map of life-zone eco-systems which has been used to monitor and predictvegetation changes due to increase of atmospheric CO2 (aleading basis of the so-called 'greenhouse effect'). Also, in1992, the World Conservaton Monitoring Centre (WCMC)gave strong support to the Holdridge Life-zone system byincluding it in their official publication Global Biodiver-sity: Status of Earth's Living Resources. WCMC is jointlydirected by IUCN, UNEP, and WWF.Through participation in the Life-zone Ecology course,students should have gained enough knowledge to imple-ment sound, practical applications of the system on suchactivities as are mentioned in the preceding paragraphs.After attending the Tropical Dendrology course, studentsshould be fully accomplished at identifying a large pro-portion of tropical trees and shrubs, including their family,genus, and in some cases species. Course participants willalso gain special skills that should enable them to continuemaking progress on their own upon returning to theirrespective countries.Courses last 3 weeks each and will be offered conse-cutively during the first semester every year. Costs are US$2,500 for Tropical Dendrology and US $2,700 for Life-zone Ecology (please note that these amounts do not in-clude airfares). For any further information please contact:DR HUMBERTO JIMENEZ SAATropical Science CenterPO Box 8-3870San Jose 1000Costa Rica.Phone: 506 2252649506 2533267Fax: 506 2534963RELIEFNET: A Step Towards an Integrated Emergency Information SystemThe United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs(DHA) has recently provided a sample of what theinternational community can expect from a global systemto manage information on complex emergencies and na-tural disasters. RELIEFNET, a network to allow real-timetransfer and dissemination of information, received a testrun of its online distributed information system viaINTERNET, during a high-level two-days' meeting attendedby representatives of governments, INGOs, and NGOs.RELIEFNET's primary objectives are to enhance deci-sion-making within governmental and humanitarian agen-cies and to improve the effectiveness of humanitarianassistance, particularly through the flow of critical inform-ation. 'Reliefnet is conceived as a decentralized system,built precisely to take advantage of the strengths of existingsystems, in full recognition of the expertise and require-ments of different but equal partners', says UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emer-gency Relief Coordinator Mr Peter Hansen, who chairedthe meeting, adding that 'The sharing of timely informationis critical to facilitate coordination and cooperation'.RELIEFNET has to take into account not only the dif-ferent needs of potential users, such as confidential transferof sensitive information, but also the different computersystems which they use. Rather than duplicate existingnetworks, RELIEFNET will bring them together to build up amultifaceted picture of emergency situations.An international discussion of RELIEFNET in Washing-ton, DC, some months ago indicated that the internationalcommunity supported the concept of an integrated inter-national emergency information system, but this meetingin June was the first opportunity since then for participantsto review the process. For further information pleasecontact:MADELEINE MOULIN-ACEVEDOInformation ServiceUnited Nations Office at GenevaPalais des NationsCH-1211 Geneva 10Switzerland.Tel. 41 22 917 2856.https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900035049Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 13:46:06, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at

Reliefnet: A Step Towards an Integrated Emergency Information System

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