A group of experts and policymakers are meeting in Tokyo at a United Nations-backed conference aimed at mitigating the catastrophic effects of landslides worldwide.

The First World Landslide Forum expects to strengthen research and learning on risk analysis and disaster management by bringing together academia, government, the UN, the private sector and individuals contributing to landslide research and education.

The four-day conference follows the 2005 World Conference on Disaster Reduction, held in Hyogo, Japan, which adopted an action plan for building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters. Some 168 governments around the world committed to taking action to reduce disaster risk at that gathering, and adopted guidelines to reduce vulnerabilities to natural hazards, which became known as the Hyogo Framework for Action.

The landside forum, held at the UN University in Tokyo, is organised within the scope of the Hyogo Framework and is expected to feed into the work of the UN's International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).

•Date: 19th Nov 2008• Region: World •Type: Article •Topic: DR general
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