Life & Style

Global body of nature conservation elects Pakistani as VP

Published February 9, 2017 Updated February 9, 2017 09:21am

KARACHI: The 36-Member IUCN's Global Council in its first meeting held Wednesday at Gland, Switzerland has elected Pakistan's environmentalist Malik Amin Aslam Khan as IUCN's Global Vice President (VP) for the period 2017-2020.

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) officials sharing the details here on Thursday said the Pakistani activist in this role will advise and closely assist the current President of IUCN, Mr Zhang Xinsheng of China who was elected at the World Conservation Congress held in Hawaii in September 2016.

After being earlier elected as one of the five Regional Councillors for West Asia, Malik Amin Aslam Khan became a member of the 37-member IUCN Global Council which is the principal governing body of the IUCN.

IUCN is the world's largest and oldest environmental body with more than 1,200 government and NGO members and almost 11,000 volunteer experts in some 160 countries.

The Council is responsible for the general governance of IUCN and setting the strategic direction at a global level.

Having many years' experience in political governance and in the field of climate change and development, Malik Amin Aslam is now serving a four-year term as IUCN Regional Councillor for South Asia and also Chairs the Green Growth Initiative in KP province.

He had served as the Minister of State for Environment (2004-2007) and has been a member on the Advisory Group on Climate Change and Sustainable Development since 2007.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2017