AIT President participates in IUCN Reception
AIT President Said Irandoust participated in the World Conservation Union (IUCN) reception on 10 May 2007 in conjunction with the Regional Steering Committee (RSC) meeting of the 'Mangroves for the Future: Promoting Investment in Costal Ecosystem Conservation' project.
The RSC is co-chaired by IUCN and UNDP, and have as members one representative from each of the government of the six focal countries for the initiative (India, Indonesia, Maldives, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Thailand) and five UN agencies and non-governmental organizations who have a regional mandate and experience in dealing with coastal ecosystem an livelihood issues (CARE, FAO, UNEP, Wetlands International and WWF).
According to AIT President Said Irandoust, AIT can play a very important role in the implementation of the project in particular the capacity building component. The estimated cost of implementing Mangroves for the Future project between 2007-2011 is US$62 million. The IUCN Plan of Action notes that AIT is already engaged in similar work and provides a regional hub for training and research in coastal issues. At the regional and international level, AIT along with the SAARC Coastal Zone Management Center, LOICZ, the nature Conservancy, University of Rhode Island, WWF and SACEP have expressed interest in participating in the program.
AIT faculty are encouraged to be active in considering aspects in which they could be involved and form a multidisciplinary team which could partner IUCN in some of the implementation aspects of the project.