Contact:	Kim Brockway					For immediate release
		(212) 854-2419					June 23, 1997
		kkb18@columbia.edu


Columbia University, UNESCO and the Smithsonian 
Establish Institute for Biosphere and Society

	Columbia University, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and 
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Smithsonian Institution have formed 
a consortium to address what promises to be one of the key issues in the coming 
century:  how to expand the economy and improve the human condition while 
protecting and nurturing the environment.
	Representatives of the three institutions gathered June 23 at Columbia to 
sign an agreement establishing the Institute for Biosphere and Society.  The 
mission of the Institute is to develop methods of valuing, managing and financing 
the sustainable use of the biosphere to promote global economic and social 
progress that conserves the ecosystem and is compatible with human prosperity.
	The Institute draws from the research and experience gained in 
Columbia's Earth Institute and its Graduate School of Business; the 
Smithsonian's Institute for Conservation Biology; and UNESCO's Man and the 
Biosphere Programme and the UNESCO-Cousteau Ecotechnie Programme.  It 
will focus on developing methods for evaluating biosphere services and resources; 
designing new instruments for financing biosphere conservation and for making 
efficient use of biosphere services; and promoting knowledge and understanding 
of new methods among decision makers in governments and international 
organizations.  The new Institute will ensure that best-practice techniques for 
valuing the biosphere and for financing its conservation are made available 
locally and nationally.
 	The Institute for Biosphere and Society will be part of the Columbia Earth 
Institute and will be headquartered at Columbia University.  The Earth 
Institute's Program on Information and Resources focuses on policy, 
North/South issues, and the interaction of the human/physical systems.  Last 
year it became the site of the UNESCO Chair in Mathematics and Economics, 
held by the Program's director, Graciela Chichilnisky.  The Chair's goal is to find 
solutions to complex global programs related to the Earth and the environment 
that we will face in the 21st century.  The Earth Institute, and Columbia 
University, are, then, appropriate headquarters for the Institute for Biosphere 
and Society.  Professor Chichilnisky will serve as its first director.

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