“As a government official with many years of experience, I attended COP10 of Ramsar Convention as a head of delegation and have also taken on a chairmanship of East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership. I was responsible for managing Kushiro Wetland ,which is the first Ramsar Site in Japan, as Director of Kushiro Nature Conservation Office of the Ministry of the Environment. Therefore, I am sure that I can contribute to Wetlands International in the further enhancement of its activities.”
Mr. Hoshino joined the Environment Agency (now Ministry of the Environment) of the Government of Japan in 1978. As a nature conservation specialist, he has worked in national park management, endangered species conservation, and conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. He worked on global environmental issues as a member of the United Nations Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Global Environment Bureau at the Ministry of the Environment, and was responsible for negotiations for the drafting of the text of the Convention on Biological Diversity as Deputy Permanent Representative to UNEP for the Embassy of Japan in Kenya. After taking a position at Kagoshima Prefecture, he has continued working for the Ministry of the Environment as Wildlife Director, Biodiversity Policy Director and Advisor to the Minister, becoming Director General of the Nature Conservation Bureau in 2013. He was heavily involved in organizing CBD COP 10 in Nagoya as head of the Ministry of the Environment’s Task Force, and after COP 10, he took on the chairmanship of the Convention’s Bureau Meeting. He has been in his current position of Project Professor at Kagoshima University since April 2015.