On 7 December 2021, the Emirates Society hosted a webinar featuring two leaders in the field of international conservation and biodiversity, H.E. Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Managing Director the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, and Dominic Jermey CVO OBE, Director General of the Zoological Society of London.
This wide ranging conversation covered the pressing challenges faced by nature and the environment. Why is biodiversity important? How urgent is the situation? Is it too late to reverse biodiversity loss? What are the practical solutions? What can individuals, civic society, and states do for conservation?
Our speakers:
H.E. Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Managing Director the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi
Razan Al Mubarak is a United Arab Emirates native who for more than twenty years has played a vital role in guiding her country toward a more sustainable future while spearheading progressive environmental protection and species conservation globally. Her diverse experience leading the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, the largest environmental regulatory agency in the Middle East, the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, an international philanthropic organization supporting species conservation projects worldwide, and Emirates Nature – WWF, a Dubai-based NGO focused on citizen engagement, earned her recognition as one of the top 100 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum in 2018. In September 2021 at the World Conservation Congress in Marseille, France, Razan was elected president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature for a four-year term.
Dominic Jermey CVO OBE, Director General of the Zoological Society of London
Dominic Jermey is Director General of The Zoological Society of London (ZSL https://www.zsl.org). Dominic was previously a Director General and British Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and to Afghanistan in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, CEO of UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and on the boards of both the FCO and the Department for Business, Innovation and Science.
Originally an investment banker, specialising in corporate finance, Dominic has also been a trustee of CAFOD, an international development NGO for 12 years and is non-executive chair of Tetrafloat, a university start-up, developing innovative engineering solutions for offshore energy storage.
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The webinar was moderated by Rt Hon Alistair Burt, chairman of the Emirates Society and former UK Minister for the Middle East and North Africa. H.E. Rawdha al-Otaiba, deputy ambassador of the UAE to the UK, closed out the session.