History:

Ibsar, Nature Conservation Center for Sustainable Futures, is an interfaculty center at AUB created in 2002 to promote nature conservation.

The uniqueness of IBSAR is its strategic approach to nature conservation which is primarily based on defining and initiating nature-based economic opportunities that are competitive and sustainable. The success of such entrepreneurial ventures becomes a venue for promoting the value of nature and for instilling a cultural outlook on the importance of preserving the region’s natural assets for sustainable economic growth. Our society is an area of surprising biological diversity where fertile lands, semi-arid, and arid regions have coexisted. The important complexity of the region and the need for the understanding and protection of its biodiversity for promotion of its sustainability lead to the creation of Ibsar. While almost every university in the West has its own biodiversity center, Ibsar is a unique center in the region for it is the only academic center that collects, identifies, catalogues, creates databases, cultivates, and researches the nutritional and medicinal uses and applications of endemic species in the region.

This vision was started in 2002 when a group of academics at AUB decided to combine their knowledge and intellectual capabilities to explore and develop biodiversity-related economic opportunities through research, biotechnology, and multidisciplinary approaches. Three years later (2005) the University recognized the pioneering efforts of IBSAR Faculty members and established the Interfaculty Center IBSAR under the Office of the Provost. The Center has acted as a platform of innovative thinking and collaborative activities and has attracted more than 40 faculty members, students, and fresh AUB graduates who worked together in a multidisciplinary environment.

Today IBSAR and its partners are attracting local and foreign investments in nature-based entrepreneurial ventures. The Center is also closely focusing on mobilizing and empowering local communities to become primary beneficiaries of this fast growing industry while preventing overexploitation of natural resources and social conflicts.