Manfred Niekisch
Manfred Niekisch (* 14 July 1951 in Nuremberg, Germany) is a German biologist, expert in international nature conservation, director of Frankfurt Zoo, and president of the Society for Tropical Ecology.
Life
Manfred Niekisch studied biology at the University of Cologne/DE and obtained his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) at the University of Bonn/DE with a study on the dispersal strategies of the yellow-bellied toad. From 1983 to 1989 he was director for species conservation of World Wildlife Fund Germany and the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network TRAFFIC. Between 1989 and 1998 he was Executive Director of OroVerde, Foundation for tropical forests. In 1998 he became Professor for International Nature Conservation at the University of Greifswald/DE - the only professorship of that kind in the German-speaking world. In March 2008, he took over as director of Frankfurt Zoo, which he is developing into an international nature conservation centre. At the Universities of Marburg/DE and Hanoi/Vietnam and the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía in Baeza/ES, he is lecturing on international nature conservation. In 2010 he furthermore received the nomination as professor for international nature conservation at Goethe-University Frankfurt. His scientific work lies particularly in both strategies and instruments for the sustainable use of natural resources, aiming especially at the conservation of biological diversity; furthermore, he is working on international conventions with relevance to nature conservation. Niekisch is the author of numerous publications and co-editor of the Journal for Nature Conservation. He has working experience in many countries, with a focus on Vietnam and the countries of Latin America.
Honorary functions
Manfred Niekisch is active in many honorary functions, among others as President of the Society for Tropical Ecology (gtö), Vice-President of the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), Vice-President of the “Help for the Threatened Wildlife Foundation”, Chairman of the foundation OroVerde, and as Chairman of the board of trustees of the Bruno-H.-Schubert foundation. He is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the Species Survival Commission of the IUCN (SSC) as well as the Comité Científico (Fundación Natura) and honorary member of the Fundación Humedales (both Columbia) and of the advisory board of the Global Nature Fund. For 17 years, he was active as the first vice-president of the German League for Nature and Environment. In 2004, at the 3rd World Conservation Congress, he was re-elected to the Council of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), where he also held the chairmanship of the Programme and Policy Committee. After the two maximum possible terms, this occupation ended in 2008. In the same year, he was appointed to the Council of the Senckenberg Naturforschende Gesellschaft and – by the German Federal Government of Germany – to the Federal Council on the Environment (SRU).
Publications (selection)
- 2010: International conservation policy and the contribution of the zoo and aquarium community. – In: DICK, G. & M. GUSSET (Ed.): Building a Future for Wildlife. Zoos and Aquariums Committed to Biodiversity Conservation. S. 45-48, Gland
- 2008: Vorwort. – In: WWF Artenschutz. Die bedrohten Tiere der Erde. – White Star Verlag, Wiesbaden
- 2008: Aspirations and realities of the Biodiversity Convention. – Rural 21 The International Journal for Rural Development, Vol. 42 no. 2, S. 8-10. Frankfurt
- 2006: Countdown 2010. Schutz der biologischen Vielfalt. – Grünbuch Europa, Politische Ökologie 102-103, S. 49-52
- 2006: Marketing concepts for global conservation. – World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (Ed.): Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Zoo Marketing and Public Relations, S. 34-36. Bern
- 2006: IUCN´s Countdown 2010 Initiative. – World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (Ed.): Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Zoo Marketing and Public Relations, S. 19-20. Bern
- 2002: CITES-Artenschutzkonferenz: Perspektiven für die Zukunft. - EU-Rundschreiben, Ausgabe 11/12.02, Dezember 2002, S. 10 - 12