Mister Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, National Delegates and dear Colleagues,
First of all I wish to thank Professor Suzuki and all the Japanese Colleagues for the perfect organization of this Fifth International Conference on Geomorphology and for the important scientific contributions which they have brought to the IAG since the official founding of our Association.
Furthermore, I wish to thank warmly all the Members of the outgoing Executive Committee for their active collaboration; in particular the outgoing President. Olav Slaymaker for the in-depth discussions and comparison of our opinions and for his availability in finding the most adequate solutions for the most diverse problems that we have had to face and solve during the past four years.
I also wish to remember all Members of the two preceding Executive Committees, in particular Denys Brunsden, who was our First President.
It is now my duty to illustrate in short the guidelines on which the IAG strategy for the 2001-2005 quadrennium is based. This point was discussed today during the first Meeting of the New Executive Committee and is the result of my long and continuous presence in all the three IAG Executive Committees: as a Member in the first two and as Vice-President in the third one.
The main fields of intervention will be the following ones.
- More committed participation of all geomorphologists in the IAG activities;
- More official enrollment in the IAG of those countries which are less favored owing to economic reasons;
- More information, updating and training opportunities for young researchers, especially those belonging to so called developing countries.
But how can these problems be solved?
I will try to show some possible ways.
Point 1.
More time should be dedicated to General Assembly and Council Meetings, in order to listen to the requests of our member geomorphologists, focus and discuss the various problems which may arise and maintain a constant and straight confrontation with the basis of our researchers.
During the Thematic and Regional Conferences - that is nearly every year - "Informal Assemblies" and "Informal Council Meetings" should be organized; these will be added to the official ones, which take place every four years, in order to receive new suggestions, discuss some of the proposals presented by various geomorphologists and collect opinions on some issues.
Furthermore, syntheses of the Minutes of the Executive Committees should be published in the Newsletters, in order to inform everybody in the quickest possible way of the discussions and decisions taken.
Point 2.
The official representation of all countries in which an organized group of geomorphologists exists should be encouraged, also by finding free-of-charge possibilities for enrollment in the IAG.
Conditions should also be created so that less favored countries can participate in international projects and programs, sponsored by international institutions such as UNESCO, I.C.S.U, the European Commission etc.
Point 3.
More frequent "Young Geomorphologists' Workshops" should be organized, also on the occasion of Thematic and Regional Conferences.
Thematic or updating Courses on important geomorphological subjects (such as "Hazards" or "Global Change" or "Mountains problems" etc.) should be organized, also by finding external funds.
Information on initiatives and opportunities concerning young geomorphologists should be inserted in the Newsletters.
Finally, responsibility should be assigned to individual Executive Members in order to oversee these problems.
Obviously, besides these three sectors of strategic intervention, there are all the other items which should give continuity to the activities already in progress within the IAG and which have been shown by the outgoing President Olav Slaymaker.
Within these I would like to cite three important tasks:
- To favour and intensify the activities of the Working Groups, whose main aim should be, on my opinion, that of structuring research projects at an international level to be submitted for financial support to institutions such as I.C.S.U., UNESCO, E.U. and so on.
- Strengthen the relationships with UGI and IUGS: we will have the chance to do so especially in 2004, within the realm of the International Geographical Congress (Glasgow, UK) and of the International Geological Congress (Florence, Italy).
- We must be actively involved in setting up important initiatives during the "Year of the Mountains" (2002): the New Executive Committee has pointed out some activities, for which will soon be consulted all the countries of concern.
Certainly the work ahead is complex and considerable but, as a conclusion to this speech, I wish to assure you of the commitment of all the Executive Committee and of myself for the achievement of these goals in the best possible way.
To you all I say "good bye!" and see you again (or, rather, hasta luego!) in Zaragoza, in Spain, in 2005 but, even before that, I hope to see you all again during the scheduled Regional Conference in Mexico in 2003 (so again hasta luego!), arrivederci!
Mario Panizza, President, IAG
Tokyo, August 28, 2001
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