Carol A. Hill, President of UIS Commission on Cave Mineralogy has announced that Thomas M. Lera has agreed to be the [Interim] Chairman of the Working Group on Speleothem Protection. Jim Werker and Val Hildreth-Werker, Chiefs of the NSS Conservation Division, announce that Tom Lera has also agreed to serve the NSS Conservation Committee as the NSS Liason for International Speleothem Protection.

Tom Lera, of Washington, D.C., has worked in Cave Conservation for many years, and has written papers on Underground Wilderness and Cave Protection Laws (access these on the NSS web page: www.caves.org/section/ccms). If you would like to work with Tom in the protection of caves in your nation, please write him and tell him what laws are on the books for
your country, and if not, what the cave protection situation is in your country.

The long-term goal of this UIS section is to prohibit the export and import of speleothems worldwide. To begin this long and arduous task, we have to know which countries are mining speleothems and which countries are exporting/importing them, so any information would be welcome. This united effort may also result in some caves being added to the World Heritage List—any caves receiving this status should also receive better protection measures. The first task is to set up a network of conservation-minded cavers worldwide.

Please send information to Thomas Lera frontier2@erols.com with a copy to Carol A. Hill Carolannhill@cs.com