During the 11th International HCH and Pesticides Forum, IHPA Chair Bram de Borst handed over again a number certificates to the new IHPA ambassadors before the closure of the Forum:

For the first time, IHPA has been issuing certificates for “Ambassadors for Life”. These special golden certificates reflect the long-term dedication and engagement of the following three IHPA ambassadors:

Dr. Tchecknavorian

We want to express our highest gratitude to Dr. Tchecknavorian, who has been permanently fighting to get the obsolete pesticide issue on the international agenda and has engaged herself on the highest level to move the issue forward and worked many times in our resolution team during the past forums. Dr. Tchecknavorian has been a key person in the development of IHPA and she has with her personal strength and expert knowledge guided IHPA to a prominent position in the international community. We want to express our highest gratitude to Prof. Emmanuel Heinisch, who has been one of the first scientists that wrote extensively about Chlorinated Pesticides production and has been presenting the issue for decade to the scientific society and worked on the global public and scientific awareness of the POPs pesticides

Dr. Sugavanam

We want to express our highest gratitude to Dr. Bala Sugavanam, who has been the engine for the last decade to edit and promote the POPs Newsletter. He has started the work from nothing and was able to create a group of several thousand newsletter readers. This growing reader group is and will be vital for the general public and for the specialists in the field of POPs. Dr. Sugavanam has this year handed over the editorship of the Newsletter to Prof. Dr. Md. Mahbubar Rahman, but is still active with his contributions to the Newsletter.

Further the following persons have been appointed and received the certificate of IHPA ambassador:

• Shahin M. Panahov, PhD, ECORES Information-Analytic Environmental Agency, Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan, spanahov1@yahoo.com or s.panahov@dedrx.gov.az
• Arastun Hasanov, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Republic of Azerbaijan, erestun-hesenov@rambler.ru
• Rashad Allahverdiyev, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Republic of Azerbaijan, az.mineco@gmail.com
• Emin Garabaghli, Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Republic of Azerbaijan, emin.garabaghli@gmail.com
• Faizan Haider Khan, Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, India, E-mail: mbt.110@gmail.com And mbt_110@rediffmail.com
• Richard Thompson, Pesticide Risk Reduction Group, AGP, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy, Richard.Thompson@fao.org
• Robert Bechtloff, robert.bechtloff@gmail.com
• Ms. Veronica Tertea, Ministry of Agriculture, Moldova, sandras56@rambler.ru or veroter@gmail.com
• Moedio Tirtotaroeno, Environmental Health & Safety Consultant, Suriname,  moedio@tirtotaroeno.com
• Margret Schlumpf, Green Tox, Switzerland, Margret.Schlumpf@access.uzh.ch
• Kazkan Orazalina, Republican State Enterprise “Kazakhskii research institute of ecology and climate” of Environment Ministry Kazakhstan,  k_orazalina@mail.ru
• Asil A. Nurzhanova, Institute of Plant Physiology, Genetics and Bioengineering, Almaty, Kazakhstan, gen_Asil@mail.ru
• Russell Coban, United Kingdom, russell.cobban@gmail.com
• Irma Tskvitinidze, Food safety, Veterinary and Plant protection National service, Georgia,  irmatskvitinidze@yahoo.com
• Mihaela Ciobanu Paun, Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Impact Assessment, Pollution Control and Air Protection General Directorate, Romania, mihaela.ciobanu@mmediu.ro
• Daniela Lud Tauw Germany, daniela.lud@tauw.de
• Elena Karabach Ministry of Agriculture Belarus, lenaKarabach@tut.by
• Amina Beibitova, National Coordinator of UNDP/GEF. UNDP Kazakhstan, Astana. Kazakhstan,  Amina.Beibitova@undp.org
• Dr. Urs K. Wagner, ETI Environmental Technology Int. Ltd., Switzerland, Urs Wagner wagnerurs@yahoo.de
• Prof. Maurice Jutz, University of applied science, Institute for Ecopreneurship (IEC), Switzerland, m.jutz@sunrise.ch
• Mikhail Malkov, Engineering Center for Environmental Security, Kiev, Ukraine, eces.mm@gmail.com and mmalkou@gmail.com
• Jésus Fernández Cascán, Dirección General de Calidad Ambiental y Cambio Cimático, Sección de Autorizaciones, Gobierno de Aragon, Zaragoza, Spain, jfernandezc@aragon.es
• Carlos Cacho Nerin, Jefe de Servicio de Control Ambiental, Dirección General de Calidad Ambiental y Cambio Climático, Gobierno de Aragon, Zaragoza, Spain, ccachon@aragon.es
• Raquel Martinez Andrés, Jefe Dpto. Estudios y Proyectos, Area de Calidad Ambiental, Sodemasa, Zaragoza, Spain, rmartinez@sodemasa.com
• Sergio San Agustín, Departamento de Estudios y Proyectos, Sodemasa, Zaragoza, Spain, ssanagustin@sodemasa.com
• Francisco Javier Jiménez Sánchez, Director Area de Calidad Ambiental, Sodemasa, Zaragoza, Spain, fjimenez@sodemasa.com
• Silvia Hernández Ugencio, Departamento de Estudios y Proyectos, Sodemasa, Zaragoza, Spain, shernandez@sodemasa.com
• Miguel Ángel Arjol, Sodemasa, Zaragoza, Spain, marjol@sodemasa.com
• Volodymr Kuznietsov, journalist, Ukraine, kuzn78@gmail.com

All ambassadors will be listed on the IHPA website at: http://www.ihpa.info/about/ambassadors/

It should be noted that all ambassadors are responsible for their contact information in case of changes and should forward such changes to the secretariat: john.vijgen@ihpa.info