In rememberance of Ms Rebecca D’Cruz
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Private sector performance
The passing of Ms. Rebecca D’Cruz on 29 May 2023 in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia is a shock to her friends and colleagues; and to many wetland conservationists.
Fondly known as “Becky” to her colleagues and friends, Malaysian born Rebecca truly dedicated her life to wetland conservation and its wise use. She began her career as Programme Officer with the Asian Wetland Bureau (AWB) Malaysia which later was elevated to Wetland International Asia Pacific since early 1990.
During this period she was involved in several wetland research and conservation projects including North Selangor Peat Swamp Forest Management Studies, Sedili Kechil River Basin study, Biodiversity projects at key wetlands in Malaysia, Wetland Education and Awareness Activities in Malaysia, South Johor Coastal Resources Studies and also National Workshop of Wise Use of Tasek Bera freshwater wetland which eventually led to the declaration of Tasek Bera as the First Ramsar site enabling Malaysia to be a contracting party to the convention.
Due to her hard work and dedicated service to wetland conservation at Southeast Asia, she was appointed to serve at Ramsar Convention Secretariat in Geneva as Regional Coordinator for Asia and the Pacific Region from 1997 to 2000 and assisted in the accession of eight Contracting Parties to the Convention during her tenure.
Despite leaving the Secretariat in 2000 to establish a natural resource management consultancy providing expert advice and services for wetlands management in the Asia-Pacific Region, she continued to support work of the Convention as the Co-Chair for “Millennium Ecosystem Assessment’s Synthesis Report” for Convention on Wetlands in 2004. She was also Vice-Chair of the Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP) from 2009 to 2012.
She will be dearly missed by all who knew her. On behalf of Wetlands International, we would like to convey our heartfelt condolences to her husband Anthony Sebastian and her family.