Barbara Ehringhaus

Barbara Ehringhaus

Born in Braunschweig, Germany, in 1938 and living in Switzerland since 1987, as a child spent her holidays in the Austrian and German Alps as well as the Dolomites. She won a scholarship to study comparative literature at the University of Colorado, where she enjoyed climbing in summer and teaching ski in winter (1958-60). She fell in love with Latin America and worked with the only German Research Institute on developing countries in Freiburg i.Br., from where she was sent on various missions of cooperation to the Andean countries. She lived in Spain and in Brazil and since her return to Europe, she “rediscovered” its nature in comparison with the tropical environment, indulging more in biological studies. She joined WWF International and several IUCN committees actively participating in European and global meetings. In Switzerland she got to know CIPRA International and Mountain Wilderness Switzerland (vice-president 1996-2005) and started to gradually engage more in nature conservation in the Alps, rather than worldwide.

As on-and-off president of ProMONT-BLANC since 1998 she refounded and reorganized this umbrella NGO of Alpine Clubs and environmental organizations from France, Italy and Switzerland, jointly trying to better protect the highest Alpine massif with a cross-border management plan.

She was appointed guarantor of Mountain Wilderness international in 2022, due to her lifelong engagement in protecting the natural and cultural heritage of mountains.

(BE – GSV)