Wendy Strahm

Wendy Ann Strahm (born March 3, 1959 in New York City ) is an American-Swiss botanist and conservationist. Her main areas of study are the endemic flora of Mauritius , Rodrigues and the Mediterranean, as well as the effects of invasive plants and climate change . Further fields of interest are forest dynamics, taxonomy and forestry .

Life

In 1981 Strahm graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Oberlin College , Ohio . From 1982 to 1984 she received a scholarship from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation for her research and nature conservation work in Madagascar and Mauritius . From 1984 to 1993 she worked for the WWF as a project manager. Her duties included the assessment of nature conservation requirements and the urgent coordination of ex situ and in situ conservation programs for plants in Mauritius and Rodrigues, including the endangered species Hibiscus fragilis , Begonia salaziensis and Ramosmania rodriguesii . In 1984 she was part of the founding team of the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation . From 1993 to 2006 she was the Plant Representative for the Species Survival Commission of the IUCN in Gland , Switzerland, where she administered a large, worldwide network of scientists overseeing conservation programs for plants and their habitats. In 1997, she received his doctorate from the School of Plant Sciences at the University of Reading with a thesis on "The conservation and restoration of the flora of Mauritius and Rodrigues" for Ph.D. From November 2008 to July 2009, she supported the development of a community-based pasture restoration project in Jordan as program officer of the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) . Since 2006, Strahm has been an independent environmental consultant for projects that require extensive expertise in questions of biodiversity as well as skills in project evaluation, administration or negotiations.

Dedication names

In 2000, the extinct land snail Erepta wendystrahmi from the Île aux Aigrettes and Mauritius was named in honor of Wendy Strahm.

Works (selection)

• Plant Red Data Book for Rodrigues , IUCN, 1989.
• The Top 50 Mediterranean Island Plants. Wild plants at the brink of extinction, and what is needed to save them. IUCN / SSC Mediterranean Islands Plant Specialist Group. (with Bertrand de Montmollin), 2005

literature

• Celia Jaes Falicov: The Environment Encyclopedia and Directory 2001 . 3rd edition, Europa Publication Ltd, 2001. ISBN 978-1857430899 , p. 541
• Nicholas Polunin: World Who Is Who and Does What in Environment and Conservation , Routledge, 2014. ISBN 978-0-415-85331-6 , p. 315

Web links

• Official profile on LinkedIn