DLD Nature

As CEO of Fundación Jocotoco in Ecuador, Martin Schaefer focuses on protecting irreplaceable regions that harbor a significant proportion of global biodiversity. By quantifying conservation outcomes through AI models, the foundation protects the buffer zones of large national parks, enabling climate adaptation.

Martin Stuchtey is the Founder of The Landbanking Group, which uses systems-thinking to stop and reverse nature loss and redefine prosperity for the long-term. In addition, Stuchtey is an Honorary Professor of Resource Strategy and Management at the University of Innsbruck School of Management.

Dr. Martin Wiesmeier is a professor for soil science at the Technical University of Munich and the Scientific Director of the Institute for Agroecology and Organic Farming at the Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture.

Matthew Gould is the CEO of the Zoological Society of London, a conservation charity which runs the London and Whipsnade Zoos, a global network of conservation projects, and the scientific Institute of Zoology. Gould’s remarkable career spans multiple industries, including government, cybersecurity, and science.

Matthias Berninger heads Public Affairs, Science, Sustainability and HSE (Health, Environment & Safety) at Bayer AG. He is responsible for the company’s global public affairs practice, and for making Bayer’s approach to sustainability a key pillar of its business strategy.

Michael Schmidt is CEO & Chief Science Officer of biometrio, which uses bioacoustics and remote sensing to preserve and restore ecosystems. A trained geoecologist, Schmidt received his PhD from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where he used Synthetic Aperture Radar data to map biomass in the Amazon.

Michail Ginsburg is Managing Director of OutNature, which produces fibers based on the Silphie plant for paper and packaging production. By tapping into regional and renewable raw material sources, the company – a brand of the environmental services provider PreZero – helps conserve natural resources. Ginsburg studied industrial and mechanical engineering in Heilbronn, Albstadt and at the University of South Wales.

Prof. Mirko Kovac is director of the Aerial Robotics Laboratory at Imperial College London. He also leads the Laboratory of Sustainability Robotics at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa). His research group focuses on the development of novel mobile robots for distributed sensing and autonomous manufacturing in complex natural environments.