Rene Haller

Rene Daniel Haller ( born December 18, 1933 Lenzburg ) is a Swiss Tropical Agronomist. He specializes in restoration, environmental protection and ecology.

His most famous project is the ecological restoration of the mining area of Bamburi Cement for Mombasa, Kenya. Now a part of the formerly devastated large fossil coral - mining area forms the public Haller Park. He is the author of many popular articles and speaker for topics ecology / economy and revival of industry devastated agricultural land. Haller is the founder of the Haller Foundation, he was Chairman of the Baobab Trust and long-standing advisory member of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Life

René Haller grew up in Lenzburg in the Canton of Aargau. He learned the trade of gardener, specializing in landscape design. Before he went to East Africa in 1956, he visited the base and the Agronomielehrgang the Swiss Tropical Institute, University of Basel.

1956, Haller to East Africa, he was in charge at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, a coffee plantation. In 1959 he took over the company Bamburi Cement Industry in Mombasa for the position of Head of the Agriculture Department. Its main task was to ensure the nutrition of factory workers by the factory affiliated farm with fruits and vegetables. In addition to a variety of other responsibilities, he was also responsible for the " greening " of the factory environment and the workers' settlement, including the school grounds.

Under Haller line, from 1982 as its director, the farm has expanded its range of products such as to fish farming, chicken farming (eggs and meat ) to goats and sheep, and later by Strauss rearing. As of 1977, the Baobab Farm LTD was independent. Around 1998, shortly before Haller's official retirement, the farm employed about 460 Kenyan employees.

The then factory owner Felix Mandl commissioned René Haller in 1971 in addition to the revegetation / reforestation of a few square kilometers large, desolate terrain of the former pan Kalkabbaugebiets. Today the Bamburi Cement is part of the international building materials group Lafarge SA. Thus began an economic and ecological experiment for Haller.

The inhospitable desert hot stone lacked soil substrate (humus ). The bottomed groundwater was salty by the coast. Through rainfall gathered superficial fresh water. All known reforestation projects failed in these environmental conditions. The first successes were achieved by Haller with casuarina ( Casuarinaceae ) and the deciduous tree Conocarpus ( Conocarpus erectus ). For the first time there was a shading and thus the requirement of soil microclimate. The falling needles ( small branches ) and leaves soon formed a floor covering, but barely rotted. With a big centipede ( Epibolus pulchripes ), which ate the needles of Casuarina trees and this could digest, achieved the decisive step towards the formation of humus.

Haller has reached after hundreds of setbacks and plenty of free experimentation that again have stabilized self-regulating ecosystems, this in shallow brackish water, in the bush and in the forest area. Similarly, it has proven with its integrated aquaculture, forestry and the Antelope breeding that sustainable income for the growing population in East Africa can be achieved without destroying the natural ecosystems, but the same under integration.

The public Quarri Bamburi Nature Trail, today Haller Park includes, for visitors to the various types of vegetation, as well as an insight into their specific wildlife which must be present to maintain the ecosystems essential. The Haller Park is not only a place of interest for coastal tourism, but the visit is an integral part of the fabric of the plan Kenyan secondary school.

Training and placement in the broadest sense Haller was always a major concern. So lodged every year dozens of students and faculty from many universities in the world in specially equipped camp. Industrial (especially the cement industry ) and politicians looked at this eco - renaturation example. At the same time domestic interested parties were informed of whatever object in Bamburi language and encouraged the open exchange of ideas.

Haller was always interested in a networked thinking also in terms of ecology / economy. Under the sun of Kenya, it is economical to deal with resources, as it is the population to feed. So even antelope farming / domestication was operated, for example, together with crocodile and fish farming with the Oryx ( Gemsbok ). This antelope can live under extreme desert conditions, which in turn can contribute to the breeder valuable meat and leather in otherwise economically undeveloped areas.

In 1991, René Haller together with Robert cautery, a retired Director of Bamburi Cement, the Baobab Trust, to allow non-commercial and charitable activities of the Baobab Farm. This Trust was supported by renowned environmental organizations for individual projects. Baobab Trust is mostly supported by the Haller Foundation, founded in 2004. Today René Haller is retired and retired, the activities will be continued through the Baobab Trust.

Haller is married and has two sons.

Awards

For his achievements in environmental protection Haller in 1987 awarded the Prize of the Global 500 Roll of Honor of the UNEP United Nations, outstanding environmental achievements (for exceptional achievements / achievements in environmental protection). 1991 Honorary Doctor of the University of Basel and the price of Dr. JE Brandenberger Foundation awarded him. In April 2003, Haller was appointed to the permanent advisory management committee of the Kenya Wildlife Service.