On Tuesday, 17 February 2009, UNU Rector Konrad Osterwalder, Vice-Rector Govindan Parayil, and Vice Rector Kazuhiko Takeuchi met with the Japanese Minister of the Environment, Tetsuo Saito. The purpose was to discuss continued cooperation between the United Nations University and the Japan Ministry of the Environment.

Rector Osterwalder and Minister Saito discussed several ongoing projects, including the growing Regional Centres of Expertise (RCE) network, the Promotion of Sustainability in Postgraduate Education and Research Network (ProSPER.NET), the Global Environment Information Centre (GEIC), and the Satoyama Initiative project of  UNU-IAS.

The two also discussed the secondment of ministry research personnel to UNU, as well as how the university can contribute to the Japanese Government’s preparations for the Tenth Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which will be held in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010.

From left: Kazuhiko Takeuchi, Tetsuo Saito, Konrad Osterwalder, Govindan Parayil. Minister Saito holds a selection of UNU Press books presented to him by the Rector. (UNU Photo)