The GARS Programme began in 1984 with its main objective to assess the use of remote sensing for the geosciences and to transfer applications developed in geoscience organisations in the developed countries to sister organisations in the developing world.

The programme ran a series of successful, cooperative regional programmes on priority topics defined by each region. These covered geological mapping in heavily vegetated terrain in Africa, followed by landslides in the Andean terrain of Latin America and then volcanic and seismic hazards in SE Asia.

Over 20 years, its membership has grown worldwide and has benefited from free access to Earth Observation data from agencies.

An expended GARS Programme has been established to implement the IGOS Geohazards theme. It brings together the existing geological organisations within the GARS Programme with the providers of earth observations. This has created an increased dialogue between the ground-based geohazard community and the space agencies.

An executive bureau in the French Geological Survey (BRGM), and a Secretariat in UNESCO support its implementation. GARS in general and IGOS Geohazards in particular offer an opportunity to put geosciences on the map in international agency fora.