David E. Steitz
Headquarters, Washington, DC              December 10, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1730)

RELEASE:  98-222

NASA, CENTRAL AMERICAN NATIONS SIGN EARTH SCIENCES PACT

     NASA and the Central American Commission on the Environment 
and Development (CCAD) will use existing satellite data to develop 
land-use maps of Central America.

     NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin and the President of the 
Central American Commission on the Environment and Development, 
and Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of El Salvador, 
Miguel Eduardo Araujo Padilla, today signed a Memorandum of 
Understanding (MOU) at NASA Headquarters, establishing cooperation 
between the CCAD and NASA in support of the Mesoamerican 
Biological Corridor.  

     Under the terms of the agreement, NASA centers as well as 
NASA-funded investigators and Central American researchers will 
use satellite data to develop maps classifying the land cover of 
the Central American isthmus according to life zones, land-use 
types, geological structure, hydrology, and other Earth Science 
factors.  NASA also will support the development of the CCAD's 
environmental data and information system by making available 
optical, radar and topographic remote-sensing data to the CCAD.  
The agreement will initiate a new partnership between NASA and the 
countries of Central America and will demonstrate the utility of 
NASA Earth science data and information for both biodiversity 
conservation and sustainable-development planning.

     The membership of the CCAD consists of the Governments of 
Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, 
and Panama, which have all agreed to work together within the CCAD 
framework to promote the sustainable development of the entire 
Central American region.  In 1997 the Presidents of the seven 
Central American countries endorsed the concept of a Mesoamerican 
Biological Corridor, running throughout the Central American 
isthmus with the goal of integrating conservation and the 
sustainable use of the region's biodiversity into a framework for 
long-term economic development.

     NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, and Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, will participate in the 
implementation of the agreement in support of NASA's Earth Science 
enterprise, Washington, DC.  NASA's Office of Earth Science seeks 
to understand the total Earth system and the effects of natural 
and human-induced changes on the global environment.
                         -end-
PHOTO EDITORS' NOTE:  Please call 202/358-1900 for photos of 
signing ceremony.