PRESS RELEASE
United
Nations 2000 World Disaster Reduction
Campaign to Focus on Disaster Prevention,
Education and Youth
The UN 2000 World Disaster Reduction
Campaign, developed by the International Strategy for Disaster
Reduction (ISDR), will be conducted worldwide from August
to October 2000 around the theme of the mobilization of youth
towards a global culture of prevention, through appropriate
education.
Specific emphasis has been placed this year on forest fires as an illustration
of a significant and recurrent threat whose impact of an economic and social
nature has always been underestimated. It is even more important this year,
when forest fires are devastating the South of France, Greece, Italy, China,
Bulgaria, and other countries.
The campaign will culminate on Wednesday, 11 October 2000 with the celebrations
of the International Day for
Disaster Reduction. This event will also include, as in previous years, the
presentation of the United Nations / Sasakawa Award for Disaster Prevention.
The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, as the successor to the
International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) since January
2000, has a primary role to broadly disseminate the message of prevention
and to educate populations and communities most at threat from natural, environmental
and technological disasters on the means available to prevent hazards from
turning into disasters. ISDR will continue all promotional and awareness-raising
activities carried out during IDNDR.
The announcement of the UN 2000 World Disaster Reduction Campaign has been
circulated worldwide to
organizations and individuals dealing with hazard prevention and vulnerability
reduction as well as to young people and schools, in order to encourage national
participation in the campaign. An active involvement from youth is expected
for an international drawing contest and a photo contest on the theme of
forest fires prevention. The aim of this exercise is to promote appropriate
changes in behaviour and to enable children, as the decision-makers of tomorrow,
to understand that disasters do not represent an inevitability, but that
action can be taken now to mitigate their economic and social impact and
to reduce their cost globally.
An Information Kit has been prepared for the campaign with the welcome
assistance of the Global Fire Monitoring Centre from Freiburg, Germany
(http://wwww.uni-freiburg.de/fireglobe),
the Emergency Management Australia (http://www.ema.gov.au), the French
'Entente Interd�partementale en vue de la Protection de la For�t et de l'Environnement
contre l'Incendie' (www.rff2000.com), the French 'Conservatoire de la For�t
M�diterran�enne', and the Cuerpo de Bomberos del Instituto Nacional de
Seguros of Costa Rica. It includes, among other material, a children's
booklet, scientific
articles and case studies prepared by these institutions on the prevention
of forest fires. It will be finalized shortly and will be disseminated
to all concerned organizations and individuals, in particular school children
and other young people under the age of 20. The information provided by
these
organizations can serve to stimulate many other professional organizations
wishing to become involved in contributing their efforts to the World Disaster
Reduction Campaign.
A press conference will be organized early in September to elaborate on the
subject and to further inform the disaster prevention constituency and any
interested people about the celebration of the International Day for Disaster
Reduction.
For additional information, please contact the United Nations
ISDR Secretariat
Palais
Wilson, 52 rue des P�quis, CH-1201 Geneva
Tel:
(41.22) 917.90.00
Fax: (41.22) 917.90.98/99
e-mail: isdr@un.org
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