Eskandar Firouz
Eskandar Firouz | |
|---|---|
اسکندر فیروز | |
.JPG) Firouz in 2006 | |
| Deputy Prime Minister Head of Environment Organization | |
| In office 1972–1977 | |
| Monarch | Mohammad Reza Pahlavi |
| Prime Minister | Amir-Abbas Hoveyda |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Manouchehr Feyli |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 August 1926 |
| Died | 4 March 2020 (aged 93) |
| Spouse | Iran Ala |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Environmentalist |
Eskandar Firouz (7 August 1926 – 4 March 2020) was an Iranian environmentalist and politician. He was the first director of the Department of Environment in Iran, where he developed the country's ecological conservation and management program.
Early life
Firouz was born on 7 August 1926 in Shiraz to Mohammad Hossein Mirza Firouz, a Qajar prince. His paternal grandfather was Abdol-Hossein Farman Farma.[1]
He was educated outside Iran, first in Germany, then in the United States at the Lawrenceville School, and later at Yale University.[2]
Career
In 1969, while serving as under-secretary of Iran's Ministry of Natural Resources, Firouz co-founded the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands with Geoffrey Matthews and Luc Hoffmann.[3] Adopted in 1971, the convention is an international treaty that promotes the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands worldwide and is named after the coastal Iranian city of Ramsar, where it was signed.[4]
Under Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda, Firouz worked to establish Iran's Department of Environment in 1971 and served as its first director.[5] There, he played a key role in the creation of Iran's national parks, nature reserves, wildlife refuges, and other protected areas.[6] He was appointed vice president of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 and served as a member of the presiding board of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) from 1973 to 1975.[7][8] In 1977, he was elected president of the IUCN but never assumed the position following the resignation of Hoveyda's cabinet.[9]
Personal life and death
Firouz was married to Iran Ala, the daughter of Hossein Ala, Iran's prime minister from 1955 to 1957. They had two daughters, Anahita and Azar. Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he and his family moved to the Washington metropolitan area in the United States, where he died on 4 March 2020 at the age of 93.
Notable works
References
- ↑ "OBITUARY: Eskandar Firouz, Founder of Iran's Department of Environment, Dies at 93". KAYHAN LIFE. 2020-03-11. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
- ↑ Firouz, Eskandar; فیروز, اسکندر (June 2012). خاطرات اسکندر فیروز: Memoirs of Eskandar Firouz. ISBN 978-1588140883.
- ↑ "Why the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands matters more than ever". Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust. 17 September 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
- ↑ Thresher, Philip B. (1995). "Wetlands of Uruguay Threatened Again by Inappropriate Development". Environmental Conservation. 22 (1): 81–81. doi:10.1017/S0376892900034202. ISSN 1469-4387.
- ↑ Firouz, Eskandar (1976). "Environmental and Nature Conservation in Iran". Environmental Conservation. 3 (1): 33–42. ISSN 0376-8929.
- ↑ Schwartzstein, Peter (12 November 2020). "How Iran is destroying its once thriving environmental movement". National Geographic. Retrieved 6 June 2026.
- ↑ "Eskandar Firouz, father of Iran's environment protection, dies at 93". Tehran Times. 2020-03-04. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
- ↑ "Welcome and Opening Address: H. E. Mr. Eskandar Firouz, Deputy Prime Minister and Director, Department of the Environment, Iran". Proceedings of an International Meeting on Ecological Guidelines for the use of Natural Resources in the Middle East and South West Asia held at Persepolis, Iran 24-30 May 1975 (PDF). IUCN publications. Morges, Switzerland: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. 1976. pp. 7–10.
- ↑ "Iranian environmentalism: Its origins and evolution". Atlantic Council. 2019-06-20. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
- ↑ "Eskandar Firouz". WorldCat Identities.
- ↑ Firouz, Eskandar (2014). Memoirs of Eskandar Firouz. IBEX Publishers. Retrieved 16 April 2025.