On April 11th, Minseon Kim, EAAFP Program Officer, will leave for a month-long visit to USA under the US Department of State’s prestigious International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), its “premier professional exchange program for current and emerging international leaders in a variety of fields.”
Minseon joins four other Korean delegates under the Global Wildlife Conservation program. She will meet with federal policy makers and foreign affairs officials in Washington DC before visiting Chesapeake Bay where local and regional governments are working on an integrated environmental program to restore the Bay’s ecology. She will then visit Florida to study the role of tourism and economic development in wetland and estuary conservation and participate in a roundtable on law enforcement and environmental protection, as well as meet with local media and NGOs. Finally she will travel to New Mexico and Idaho to understand how federal and state governments work together with landowners on conservation of endangered species and protected area management.
The selection for the IVLP is extremely competitive and we congratulate Minseon on her nomination for this program which in its 40 year history has involved over 300 current or former Heads of State. So we expect that when Minseon becomes Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, she will be in a great position to promote the conservation of migratory waterbirds and their habitats in the country.
