On my personal behalf, as well as on behalf of the Awards Committee of the Society for Conservation Biology, I am pleased to inform you, and through you, the Centre for Science and Environment, that Anil Aggarwal has been selected posthumously as the recipient of the 2002 SCB Distinguished Service Award for his contributions in the field of conservation and development. We are delighted to be able to honor Anil because of his extraordinary contributions to our common cause.

With a membership of 6000 in over 90 countries, and our  prestigious journal Conservation Biology, we regard SCB as the  premier professional society for those seeking to conserve  biological diversity. Our SCB Distinguished Service awards are presented on an annual basis in five (previously six) categories to organizations and individuals who have made outstanding contributions to our mission. Only on rare occasions, the Society has chosen to bestow posthumous awards. This is one of them.

These awards represent the highest recognition that our Society bestows upon colleagues in the struggle to study, protect, sustain and restore that diversity. I append a list of the other 2002 award recipients below, as well as a list of all the previous SCB awardees, which includes such luminaries as E.O Wilson, Paul Ehrlich, Albert Gore, the park guards of D.R. Congo and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

We hope that you will be able represent Anil Aggarwal, and along with all other awardees, will attend the Awards Ceremony at the 16th annual meeting of the SCB, to be held at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK from July 14-19 this year. We are planning the Awards Ceremony for the evening of July 18. Although the awards are modest, we hope that the opportunity to join hundreds of like-minded colleagues from around the world to recognize and remember Anil Aggarwal and his contributions will encourage you to attend. You will have nearly five minutes to speak at the awards ceremony.

Again, I congratulate you on this recognition of your achievements. Anil Aggarwal will join a select group of honorees of whom SCB is justly proud,

Seema Paul,
Chair  Awards Committee
C/o United Nations Foundation

For more information on the SCB annual conference at Canterbury,
Please visit:http://www.ukc.ac.uk/anthropology/dice/scb2002/index.html