|
 Saiful Islam Khan
Country of origin: Bangladesh
Education: I achieved my Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Forestry
with distinction from Khulna University, Bangladesh in 1999. It is a 4 year professional
degree focusing mainly on forest management, ecology and wood technology. The title
of my undergraduate thesis was 'Mangrove Resources Management in the World'. With
support from an AusAID scholarship I completed my Master of Applied Science in Environmental
Science at the University of Sydney, Australia in 2001. It was a 1 year programme
with a research project titled 'Arsenic removal from groundwater: A laboratory study
using Bauxsol™ Technology'.
Immediately prior to coming to UNEP-WCMC, I was working as a civil servant for the
Bangladesh Government as a permanent employee in the Economic cadre. My main responsibility
was to appraise, process and monitor the implementation of development projects
and policies of the government, especially from an environmental perspective.
Before joining the Bangladesh government in July, 2005, I worked with IUCN - The
World Conservation Union, Bangladesh Country Office. In IUCN I was placed in 'Ecosystem
and Landscape Management Unit' and served in different capacities - from Research
Associate, then Assistant Programme Officer and then as Programme Officer. The tenure
with IUCN Bangladesh was from October, 2002 till June 2005 for almost three years.
In addition, I have also worked as part time faculty at the North South University,
Bangladesh lecturing on 'Environmental Ecology'.
As a Chevening scholar at UNEP-WCMC, I am placed in the 'Biodiversity and Climate
Change' and 'One Ocean' Programmes. My area of focus would be to investigate the
impacts of climate change on mangrove ecosystems. Mangroves are valued for potential
adaptation and mitigation roles in facing the climate change challenge. Building
resilience into mangrove conservation plans requires an understanding of how mangroves
will respond to climate changes. In order to support mangrove conservation through
changing climate condition, a research project titled 'Future of mangroves under
changing climate' is being undertaken. Based on the experience of 'Mangrove For
Future (MFF)' programme, the objective of my project is to generate information
on future of mangroves that is easily interpretable and usable by policy makers
and planners. I will concentrate on South Asian coastlines/Bay of Bengal rim. A
combination of review, consultation, GIS and simulation modelling will be used in
the research. The anticipated outputs are maps of existing mangrove area, mangrove
area under protected areas and potential future mangrove areas. A user's guide explaining
how to use these outputs will accompany the maps. Along with these, key considerations
for decision making and planning for mangroves of the region will also be outlined.
“UNEP-WCMC's self learning and flexible working environment provides the idyllic
platform to gain experience about conservation practices applied worldwide. The
experience not only motivates you to work for conservation but also sensitizes you
to act as a conservationist. This is an opportunity to be in touch with researchers
and conservationists of diversified thoughts and experience. There is ample chance
to share experience with co-researchers as well. All these features really open
up the avenue of learning and acquiring multi-dimensional experience. This research
opportunity at UNEP-WCMC particularly attracts me with the prospect of gaining experience
on worldwide management of mangroves and coastlines, especially under climate change
scenarios. It will also provide me the chance of acquiring new skills on GIS and
ecosystem modelling. Thus this exposure provides the ideal opportunity to bring
in new thoughts, ideas and approaches into the conservation practices and development
initiatives of my country.”
|
