Ashok Khosla elected president of the IUCN

Updated - Wednesday 12 November 2008

Indian Ashok Khosla has been elected president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Khosla is a former director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and current chairman of Delhi-based Development Alternatives, a social enterprise devoted to promoting commercially viable, environmentally friendly technologies for rural communities in the global South.

IUCN is the world's oldest and largest environmental network. It is a democratic union of more than 1,000 government and NGO members and some 10,000 volunteer scientists in more than 150 countries. Ashok Khosla was elected at its World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October 2008.

'Given its critical role in maintaining life, conservation of biodiversity now needs at least the same level of attention that other global environmental issues have garnered,' said Khosla at the Congress. 'We must form new partnerships among the best institutions to bring together their different insights and to generate meaningful solutions that deal effectively with the inter-related issues of population, natural resources, environment and development.'