Philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss and the Wyss Foundation are committed to accelerating the pace and scale of conservation, supporting innovative academic research, and finding long-term solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss.
Since its establishment in 1998, the Wyss Foundation has led the movement to conserve at-risk ecosystems for future generations to enjoy. Leaders & Philanthropists Editor, Samantha Welsh, speaks with the Wyss Foundation to understand how the Foundation and its partners have helped local and indigenous communities, national governments, land trusts, and non-profit partners permanently protect more than 100M acres of land and more than 3M sq km of ocean, an area larger than the landmass of India. Mr. Wyss and the Foundation also support innovative climate and sustainability research through the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Wyss Academy for Nature at the University of Bern. Hansjörg Wyss meets with staff from The Nature Conservancy, one of the primary organizations executing on his $1.5 billion pledge to protect the planet
LUX: Could you share the story behind the creation of your organisation and what motivated you to focus on conservation"
Wyss Foundation: When Hansjörg Wyss first came to the United States as a student in 1958, his weekends hiking and climbing in the Rocky Mountains sparked a lifelong love for the open landscapes of the American West. What inspired Mr. Wyss the mos...