The International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) is a interstate organisation established in order to fund and credit joint regional environmental and research programmes and projects aimed at saving the Aral Sea and improving the environmental situation in the areas affected by the disaster as well as solving regional socio-economic problems.

The President of Uzbekistan, I.A.Karimov, was elected the President of the IFAS by the Council of Heads of the Central Asian States in Almaty on 28 February, 1997.

On 20 March, 1997 a permanent executive and administrative body, the Executive Committee of IFAS (IFAS EC) was established in the city of Tashkent with branches in all the Central Asian states. With the agreement of the heads of the Central Asian states, R.A.Ghiniatulin was appointed the Chairman of the IFAS EC.