Christoph, born in 1965, completed his degree in forestry at Munich University, but always felt more drawn to conservation than to forestry exploitation. In 1993, following his master’s thesis on wolves in the Canadian Yukon, Christoph launched a research project on wolves in the Romanian Carpathians. Together with his Austrian wife Barbara – a conservationist like himself – he spent the next ten years expanding this research project into a complex, multi-faceted conservation project focusing on wolves, bears and lynx. Consequently, Christoph became member of the IUCN Wolf Specialist Group.
In 2003, Christoph and Barbara set up a horse-riding business and spent the following years exploring Transylvania on horseback. Today, the venue is Romania’s leading trail riding centre with hundreds of international visitors a year.
With the restitution of forests to private owners and the subsequent clear-cutting in the mountains, the couple returned to conservation and founded Foundation Conservation Carpathia to stop illegal logging and to create a world-class wilderness reserve in the Fagaras Mountains. Helped by international philanthropists such as Hansjörg Wyss, Foundation Conservation Carpathia, under the leadership of Christoph and Barbara, grew into Romania’s largest conservation NGO. They have raised over 100 million euros for this project and received international awards such as the Bambi Award, the Alianta Sustainability Award or the Federal Cross of Merit of Germany.