The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Environment Agency- Abu Dhabi (EAD) signed on Wednesday a four-year Framework Agreement in support of the IUCN Programme as well as a Memorandum of Understanding to support the implementation of the Strategic Plan of IUCN's Species Survival Commission.
A signing ceremony took place at IUCN Headquarters in Switzerland between Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary General of EAD and Julia Marton-Lefevre, Director General of IUCN.
The Environment Agency Abu Dhabi joins Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the MAVA Foundation who, as Framework Partners, support IUCN's 2009-2012 Programme, Shaping a Sustainable Future, with multi-year core funding.
"Through EAD, we are delighted to welcome the Government of Abu Dhabi as IUCN's first non-OECD member (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) as a Framework Partner. EAD's Mission "to protect and conserve the environment for people's well being and a better life for all" as well as its Vision and Values are very close to IUCN's heart. We look forward to this strengthened engagement", commented IUCN's Director General, Julia Marton-Lefevre.
EAD's support over the next four years will be instrumental for the implementation of the current approved Programme (2009-2012) as well as for the 2013-2016 Programme currently under consultation with IUCN Members - for approval at the World Conservation Congress in 2012.
In this occasion, Razan Al Mubarak, commented EAD's commitment to environmental conservation goes beyond borders, is deeply rooted in the premise of sound unbiased science and the need to work and share the environmental responsibilities with others form government, NGO and civil society as such our partnership with IUCN is a natural progression, In addition to becoming an IUCN Framework Partner, the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi has also announced three years of support to IUCN's Species Survival Commission (SSC). The Chair of the SSC, Dr Simon Stuart, expressed his profound gratitude to the EAD for its continued commitment to species conservation efforts.
The SSC and the IUCN Global Species Programme have enjoyed a close working relationship with Abu Dhabi for the last 20 years particularly on issues such as species conservation and reintroduction as well as red-list assessment and training. The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi has been a long-time supporter of the secretariat of the SSC Re-introduction Specialist Group for many years, and has hosted the first ever meeting of the SSC Specialist Group Chairs in Al Ain in February 2008.
Dr Stuart said: "This new engagement from Abu Dhabi will be used to advance our work in a number of areas including on Red List training (especially in the West Asian and GCC region), assessments of specific groups of species such as reptiles, fishes and plants, as well as advancing our work on sustainable use, species conservation planning and invasive species. We plan to use the support from Abu Dhabi to leverage additional support from other partners for these critical areas of work. We are most grateful to Abu Dhabi for keeping the international spotlight on the urgent conservation needs of species, not least through the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund".
