IUCN/SSC Otter Specialist Group Bulletin
©IUCN/SCC Otter Specialist Group
Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 1- 60 (January 2011)
Obituary
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Dorothea August (1975 - 2011)
Conservationists are deeply saddened by the sudden passing away of Dorothea August on 11 January 2011. Her tragic and unexpected death at the age of 35 following complications after a viral infection is a big shock for everyone who knew her and who had the joy to collaborate with her.
In 2004 Dorothea graduated as an engineer in land-use planning, landscape conservation, nature protection and environmental development from the University of Hannover, Germany, focusing in her dissertation on the conservation status of the European Mink. Even before her formal studies, she was already a keen supporter of European mink and Eurasian otter conservation, with an emphasis on wetlands in the Danube Delta and also elsewhere in Eastern and South-eastern Europe.
As of early 2005, Dorothea worked for the Ramsar Secretariat to provide assistance and advice to countries in Europe. Participants to Ramsar COP9 in Uganda may remember her as a particularly helpful soul at the CoP. In 2006, she organized the successful planning meeting for the Carpathian Wetland Initiative for Ramsar. In 2007 Dorothea started to work for WWF Germany’s Freshwater Department as River Basin and Water Resources Management Officer. There she worked on a number of innovative projects across Europe, focussing on sustainable wetland and resources management, water stress mitigation and spatial planning, always keeping an eye on threat mitigation and supporting habitat needs for Eurasian otters.
From her office in Frankfurt, she managed a regional conservation project portfolio overseeing WWF Germany’s investment in Madagascar and in the Mara river basin in East Africa. Dorothea always conducted her work in a very professional and holistic way, involving state actors as well as the local communities, the non-government sector and the scientific community. We will always remember Dorothea as a very dedicated, friendly, generous and enthusiastic person. Besides her work as a conservationist, she was committed to many other projects, including the provision of key support as founding member and liaison person to France for the ‘Youth for Dora’ association within the memorial foundation for the survivors of a WW2 concentration camp close to her home town, and her family’s horticulture business.
Dorothea will be sorely missed by her family, friends and colleagues and all those who knew her.
Roland Melisch, TRAFFIC International and WWF Germany
roland.melisch@wwf.de