DrLucHoffmann
Dedicated pioneer of modern nature conservation
REGARDED AS an environmental visionary by his peers, the Swiss conservationist Dr Luc Hoffmann, who has died aged 93, cofounded the World Wildlife Fund and helped establish the Ramsar Convention for the protection of wetlands. DrHoffmannspenthisentirelifecommitted to conservation through his personal work and through the activities of numerous institutes and foundations withwhichhewasassociated,including the Tour du Valat research centre in the Camargue region of France.
Born in Basel, Switzerland, the second son of businessman and art lover Emanuel Hoffmann and the sculptor Maja Hoffmann-Stehlin, he developed an interest in birds and their habits from early childhood in his local Basel area.
Despite considerable family wealth, his parents brought him up modestly, but his early life was not immune from tragedy. His father died in a car crash when he was nine years old and the following year his older brother died of leukaemia. His mother married the Swiss composer Paul Sacher the following year.
Hoffman published his first paper at the age of 18 on the subject of migrant seabirds in the Basel region. He went on to study botany and zoology in the University of Basel in 1941, but was conscripted into the Swiss Army in 1943 . At the end of the Second World War, having achieved the rank of lieutenant, he obtained a PhD in Zoology from Basel University for his studies of the behaviour of common tern chicks in the Camargue. He wrote and published more than 60 books and publications on birds and their habitats.
He bought an estate in the Camargue in 1947 and set up the Tour du Valat biological research station where generationsof ecologiststrainedandwhere over 60 PhDs have been awarded for research conducted there.
He became director of Wetlands International, vice-president of the International Union for the Conserva- tion of Nature (IUCN) and established the Fondation Internationale du Banc d’Arguin in Mauritania. Drawing on the names of his four children, Maja, Andre, VeraandDaria,hesetuptheMAVAfoundation in 1994 which distributes grants for conservation.
Dr Hoffmann’s story is closely entwined with the history of the World WildlifeFundof whichhewasafounder member in 1961. He was one of the first board members of World Wildlife Fund International and was its first vice president, in which role he served until 1988, becoming vice-president emeritus in 1998. He was always committed to taking this organisation into global status, which he achieved as a founder of WWF in France and Greece.
Hewasinstrumentalinattemptingto save Spain’s Coto Doñana National Park in Andalusia in 1963 and was one of the foundingfathersof theRamsarConvention on Wetlands, one of the first intergovernmental treaties to protect the environment.Theaimof theconvention is to conserve wetlands which can be periodically covered fully or partially by shallowwaterandhostmigratorybirds.
In 2008 he formed the Fondation Van Gogh Arles to preserve the memory of the famous Impressionist and to encourage contemporary art. In 2012 the MAVA Foundation and WWF International launched the Luc Hoffmann Institute to address some of the planet’s key environmental challenges through sustainability science solutions.
In acknowledgement of his work the WWF awarded him its highest accolade: the Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Award in 1998. He also received the French Legion of Honour in 2010 and the 2016 Prince Albert 11 of Monaco Foundation award for biodiversity conservation. Apart from his dedicated work in his chosen field he was also known for his philanthropy.
Dr Hoffmann was married to Daria Razumovsky, who died in 2002. He passed away on 21 July 2016 in Camargue, France and is survived by their four children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild. André Hoffmann currently serves as vice president of WWF International. Dr Luc Hoffmann: Born January 3, 1923. Died July 21, 2016