Michael Succow

Michael Succow (* April 21, 1941 in Lueders near Bad Freiwalde ) is a German biologist and agronomist. In numerous scientific publications, he has distinguished himself internationally as a particular marsh ecologist. Especially his ecological- hydrological Moor typing is now regarded as the standard work of Moor customer. Since 1997 he has been awarded the Right Livelihood Award in recognition of his contribution to the establishment of many large-scale conservation reserves in East Germany, Eastern Europe and Asia. The Ostsee-Zeitung referred to him because of his continuous, passionate commitment as an " itinerant preacher for nature conservation ".

Professional career

1960-1965 studied Succow biology at the Ernst- Moritz- Arndt- University Greifswald, where he earned his doctorate under Franz Fukarek. He then spent four years as a research assistant at the Botanical Institute of the University. After he openly sympathized with the reform processes of the Prague Spring, he had to give up his university career in 1969 under pressure from the East German regime first. Succow now worked as a pedological Standorterkunder and later became head of a so-called brigadier Meliorationskombinats. After receiving his doctorate in 1970 with a bog vegetation science topic, he spent several months in Mongolia, before he was for many years Researcher at Soil Science Institute of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR. 1987 Succow was appointed professor at the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR, after he had again habilitated with a moor known union issue.

1990 Succow was responsible for resource protection and land use planning as a short-term Deputy Minister for Nature, Environment and Water Management of the GDR. The National Park program decided were asked with the seven percent of the area of the GDR as a national park or biosphere reserve under strict conservation - On September 12, 1990, at the instigation Succows the Council of Ministers of the GDR - at its last meeting before its dissolution.

After the "Wende " 1990 Michael Succow first took a visiting professorship at the Technical University of Berlin, Institute of Ecology. After various advisory activities for the State of Brandenburg and at the international level - for example, in Georgia, with the initiation of seven national parks - came in 1992 an appointment as university professor of Geobotany and Landscape Ecology and Director of the Institute of Botany and Botanical Garden, University of Greifswald as successor of his PhD Franz Fukarek. In the following years he built a separate course of study "Landscape Ecology and Nature Conservation " on.

In addition Succow since 1990 worked in various countries of the former Warsaw Pact and in Central and East Asia, there to initiate large-scale conservation projects: UNESCO World Heritage sites in Kamchatka, in the Lena Delta and in Karelia, UNESCO biosphere reserves in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and national parks in Mongolia, Georgia, Russia and Belarus. After the founding of " Michael Succow Foundation for the Protection of Nature ," which was built with the prize money for the Alternative Nobel Prize, he supported especially the Republic of Azerbaijan in the implementation of a national park program with up to eight reserves.

Michael Succow clothed addition to his professional work numerous honorary positions and scientific advisory boards in conservation organizations and institutions.

Awards

Publications

  • With Leberecht Jeschke and Hans Dieter Knapp as co-editor: nature conservation in Germany: recaps, insights, views. Ch Links Verlag, Berlin, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86153-686-4.
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