Eskandar Firouz ( – ) was an Iranian environmentalist and politician. He was the first director of the
Department of Environment in Iran. He developed Iran's ecological conservation and management program. Eskandar Firouz is recognized as the founder of environmental protection and conservation in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
.
Early life
Eskandar Firouz was born in 1926 in Shiraz to
Mohammad Hossein Mirza Firouz
Prince Mohammad Hossein Mirza Firouz (1894–1983) KCVO (1919) was an Iranian prince of the Qajar dynasty. He was son of Prince Abdol-Hossein Mirza Farmanfarma and Princess Ezzat-ed-Dowleh daughter of Mozaffar al-Din Shah.
Biography
He was edu ...
(1894–1983), a
Qajar
Qajar Iran (), also referred to as Qajar Persia, the Qajar Empire, '. Sublime State of Persia, officially the Sublime State of Iran ( fa, دولت علیّه ایران ') and also known then as the Guarded Domains of Iran ( fa, ممالک م ...
prince. His paternal grandfather was
Abdolhossein Farmanfarma (1857–1939).
He did his education outside Iran, first in Germany, then in the United States (
Lawrenceville Preparatory School) and later at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
.
Career
As an environmental conservationist, in 1971, he championed the formation of Iran's Department of Environment. In his tenure as the Director of DOE, Iran developed and adopted the Environmental Protection Law, which is still in force.
Firouz helped in creating the national parks, nature reserves, wildlife refuges and protected areas in Iran. He was appointed as the vice-president at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972. Firouz was also a member of the presiding board of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1973–75. In 1977, he was elected as President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), a position that he never filled as the Shah forced the resignation of the government during the Revolution.
Firouz was one of the three founding founders of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance – the “
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...
”.
Personal life
Firouz married Iran Ala who is the daughter of the
Hossein Ala
Hosein Alā ( fa, حسین علاء; 13 December 1881 – 12 July 1964) was an Iranian politician who served as Prime Minister in 1951 and from 1955 to 1957.
Background
He was born in 1882 in Tehran and spent his early years in London. He was ed ...
(1881–1964), Iran's prime minister from 1955 to 1957. He had two daughters, named Anahita and Azar. He died on March 4, 2020, at the age of 93.
Notable works
*''The Complete Fauna of Iran''
*''Environment Iran''
*''The wetlands and waterfowl of Iran''
*''Memoirs of Eskandar Firouz''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Firouz, Eskandar
People from Shiraz
Farmanfarmaian family
1926 births
2020 deaths
Heads of Department of Environment (Iran)
Iranian environmentalists
Iranian botanists
20th-century Iranian people
21st-century Iranian people