Josef Margraf

Josef Margraf (born April 3, 1953 ; † January 26, 2010 in Jinghong , Yunnan , People's Republic of China ) was a German biologist and ecologist who was particularly committed to the protection and sustainable use of tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia.

Life

Josef Margraf grew up in Gaimersheim in the Upper Bavarian district of Eichstätt . He attended the high school in Eichstätt , where his musical talent was encouraged. After graduating from high school , he did alternative military service at the Federation of Nature Conservation in Bavaria in direct engagement with the then chairman, Hubert Weinzierl . Josef Margraf had a great influence on this period, as he had the opportunity to experience , in addition to Weinzierl, well-known biologists and ecologists such as Konrad Lorenz and Josef Reichholf or the science journalist Horst Stern up close. This reinforced his desire to become a biologist, or better yet, an ecologist .

From 1974 to 1979 Margraf studied biology with a specialization in zoology at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart . He wrote his diploma thesis on the ecology of temporary freshwater flax lakes on the Giara di Gesturi in Sardinia , supervised by the zoologist Hinrich Rahmann .

In the 1980s he studied the ecology of the Ifugao rice terraces on the island of Luzon in the north of the Philippines , supervised by the herbologist Werner Koch at the Institute for Plant Production in the Tropics and Subtropics of the University of Hohenheim; with his work he received his doctorate in 1985.

After a few years in Germany, during which he founded the Josef Margraf publishing house , he went back to the Philippines. As part of a project of the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), he devoted himself from 1989 to 1997 on the island of Leyte to the sustainable use of rainforests, which he described as rainforestation farming . In 1997 he also went to Xishuangbanna in the south of the Yunnan Province ( People's Republic of China ) on the border with Myanmar and Laos for GTZ , where he was a consultant in the long-standing Sino-German project Tropical Forest Ecosystems Management in Xishuangbanna .

In the 2000s, he and his wife Minguo Li set up the TianZi ( Seeds of Heaven ) biodiversity research and development center near Jinghong.

From 2000 until his untimely death from heart failure, Josef Margraf was married to the Chinese journalist Minguo Li. The couple had two daughters. Margraf is buried on Bulang Mountain near the family home.

Services

• Founder of the scientific publishing house Josef Margraf in Weikersheim in the 1980s. The publishing house was converted into a GmbH (Margraf Publishers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH) in 2003 and also took over the publishing house Backhuys Publishers Netherlands (LLC).
• Developer of the concept for rainforestation farming together with the Filipino scientist Paciencia P. Milan.
• Founder of the TianZi ( Seeds of Heaven ) Biodiversity Research and Development Center together with his wife Minguo Li.
• Together with his wife Minguo Li, founder of Nature Products , which sends rare botanical species that have been harvested in the TianZi reserves as well as tea and rainforest honey to customers all over the world.

honors and awards

• Posthumously, in September 2010, Josef Margraf and his wife were presented with the You Bring Charm to China Award, presented to foreigners living in China, for their extraordinary efforts for the development of the nation.
• 1997 - a Philippine Presidential Award for his work on sustainable rainforest use on Leyte Island.
• During his doctoral studies, he received a scholarship from the Father and Son Eiselen Foundation founded by Hermann Eiselen (now the Fiat Panis Foundation).

selected Writings

• Goeltenboth, F., Milan, PP and Margraf, J. 1999. "Rainforestation" farming for biodiversity conservation and rural development in the Philippines. German Tropical Day, Berlin. URL: http://rainforestation.ph/resources/pdf/publications/Goeltenboth_et_al_1999_Rainforestation_farming_for_biodiversity.pdf
• Goltenboth, F., Timotius, KH, Milan, PP and Margraf, J. (eds.) 2006. Ecology of insular Southeast Asia: the Indonesian archipelago. Elsevier.
• Margraf, J. 1996. Rainforestation Farming: A Farmer's Guide to Biodiversity Management for the Philippines. Philippine-German Applied Tropical Ecology Program, 35 pages.
• Margraf, J. and Milan, PP, 1996. Ecology of Dipterocarp forests and its relevance for island rehabilitation in Leyte, Philippines. Dipterocarp Forest Ecosystems: Towards Sustainable Management, pp. 124-154.
• Milan, PP and Margraf, J. 1994. Rainforestation Farming: An alternative to conventional concepts. Annals of Tropical Research 16 (4), 17-27.

Children's book

• Josef Margraf: Little Ear Elephant Lee . ISBN 978-7-5104-5176-8 . New World Press, 2015.

Web links

• Josef Margraf: Green Hero in China on Vimeo.
• After the death of Josef Margraf: Rainforest protection continues ; by german.china.org.cn, July 13, 2012.
• Scientists flee blaze in Chinese rainforest restoration project ; The Guardian, Feb. 28, 2011.
• Teen sisters protect SW China rainforest on youtube.
• Rainforest Sanctuary ; by China Pictorial.
• About TianZi ; by New Nordic Saves Plants.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ About the ecology of temporary freshwater flax lakes on the Giara the Gesturi in Sardinia
2. ↑ ^{a b} Ecological studies on Ifugao rice terraces, Philippines
3. ↑ ^{a b} Restoring paradise in Global Times , 2010
4. ^ Margraf Publishers
5. ↑ ^{a b} The hidden power of orchids , 2017
6. ^ Nature Products
7. ↑ Pat on the back ; China Daily, Sep 28, 2010
8. ↑ You Bring Charm to China ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , CCTV Documentary