Annual Report 2014

One year ago I took up the honorary position of President of the Frankfurt Zoological Society. This was a great honour – but it was also a great challenge following in the footsteps of Gerhard Kittscher who had enjoyed such a long and successful presidency. I had been a Board member of the “Hilfe für die bedrohte Tierwelt” foundation since 2010, and was familiar with the FZS, yet I wanted to take the time to get to know the organisation, its structure, and the people behind the many projects, in more detail.

The FZS has grown considerably over the last ten years. Its project volume has risen several times, the number of employees (especially those in the field) has increased, and the network of connections at both the national and international level has become more tightly intermeshed. I have taken up the post to help FZS manage this growth and above all to assist in the process of professionalisation by contributing my corporate experience and sharing my connections. My first priority was to find out how a decentralised non- profit organisation with a flat hierarchy works and to see how we can retain the spirit of the FZS family, i.e. the characteristic which makes such a small organisation so special, despite all this rapid growth and professionalisation.

I am impressed by what I have seen. Be it in the FZS office in Cusco, Peru or in the project office in Vietnam, I got to know people who are dedicating their time and their knowledge to working on (frequently very challenging) FZS projects – all with the requisite degree of enthusiasm. The challenge which the staff members face is nearly always the same – an enormous increase in the pressure on the last areas of wilderness which they are trying to preserve. There is an urgent commercial desire to tap into the last reserves of our planet.

Klaus Becker
President of the Frankfurt Zoological Society