Christof Schenck, Executive Director of the Frankfurt Zoological Society

Welcome on the Titanic – navigation in the time of the triple crisis

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Never before in recent history has there been a global triple crisis of today's dimensions. Climate change, biodiversity loss and pandemics are the challenges of our time. Causation and final mitigation options converge in time and lead to an extraordinary responsibility. Using concrete examples from the project portfolio of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, examples of complex challenges in nature conservation in the Global South will be highlighted and approaches to solutions presented.

Frankfurter Zoologische Gesellschaft  https://fzs.org/de/

Christof Schenck https://fzs.org/de/ueber-uns/christof-schenck /

Artikel FR 2019 https://www.fr.de/zukunft/storys/umweltschutz/erhalt-artenvielfalt-geht-naturschutz-menschen-12247686.html#

CV Dr Christof Schenck

Dr Christof Schenck is a biologist and Executive Director of the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), an internationally conservation organisation. The FZS focuses on the conservation of biodiversity in large wilderness areas.

Christof Schenck studied biology in Tübingen and Freiburg and earned his doctorate in Munich. He was already particularly interested in solutions to wildlife-human conflicts and nature conservation when he was a student. In the course of his doctoral thesis, he prepared a habitat analysis for giant otters in Peru and developed a comprehensive conservation concept together with his wife Dr. Elke Staib. For almost three years, the two biologists spent time in tents in the tropical rainforest of Peru to study the rare giant otters there and to introduce conservation measures.

His involvement with the FZS began in the early 1990s with his work as project manager in Peru, and in 1996 he joined the head office in Frankfurt. At the end of 2000, he was appointed Managing Director, and in 2004 he also took over the management of the foundation "Hilfe für die bedrohte Tierwelt" (Help for threatened wildlife), a supporting foundation of the Frankfurt Zoological Society.

Christof Schenck is represented in numerous other foundations and committees, such as the Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation, the Eleonore Beck Foundation in Munich, the Romanian Conservation Carpathia Foundation, the Frankfurt Zoological Society-US, the Bruno H. Schubert Foundation, the Frankfurt Polytechnic Society and the Frankfurt Foundations Initiative. He is vice-chairman of BioFrankfurt, a partner at the Frankfurt Conservation Center, a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and co-author of two books and a film. In 2016 he was awarded the Nature Life International Environmental Prize, and in 2021 the One World Medal of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Regular project visits to four continents are still part of his remit today.