Foundation purpose
Protection and conservation of nature
The Bernd-Thies-Foundation is a Swiss foundation established on 5 October 1990 and domiciled in Basel-Stadt. It is under the supervision of the Federal Department of Home Affairs (Bern).
The purpose of the Foundation is the protection and conservation of nature on a non-profit basis, in particular by making financial contributions to specific nature conservation projects or by making donations to institutions which must use them for the same, non-profit purposes. The Foundation does not carry out any nature, species and environmental protection projects of its own.
Priorities
The projects we support
The Foundation Board bases its work and decisions on the Foundation’s purpose as defined by its founder Bernd Thies and has set three priorities for the assessment of projects:
With 1st priority, applied conservation projects as well as applied research projects for the conservation and distribution of the wolf in Europe are supported.
With 2nd priority, the Foundation supports conservation and research projects for the wolf in other regions of the world, as well as for other endangered large carnivore species, such as bear and lynx.
With 3rd priority, any nature conservation projects, especially in the field of bird conservation, in Switzerland and abroad, can be supported.
The promotion of bird conservation projects goes back to Bernd Thies’ fondness for photographing birds and making his pictures available to Ornis, the SVS (Swiss Society for the Protection of Birds) magazine for birds and nature conservation.
The founder
His love of nature lives on today in the foundation named after him.
Bernd Thies was born on 20 November 1951 in Coesfeld/Westphalia (Germany) to an industrialist family. After graduating from high school, he studied business administration at the University of Münster. At the beginning of the 1980s, Bernd Thies gave his life a new direction by studying psychology at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. The selection of impressive animal and landscape photographs in the GALLERY section of this website recalls his travels between 1985 and 1988. As a member of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Tierfotografen e.V. (Society of German Animal Photographers), Bernd Thies discovered his motifs in many countries of the world. Bernd Thies died on 9 November 1988 as the result of an accident.
Projects we support
Foundation Board
Members of the Foundation Board
Raphael Keller
Attorney at Law, President and Managing Director
Dr. Sandra Gloor
Biologist, SWILD Zurich, Vice President
Dr. Robert Zingg
Biologist, former Curator, Zurich Zoo
Richard Lehner
Communications Consultant, Netzwerk Lehner GmbH
Gabor von Bethlenfalvy
Biologist, responsible for large carnivores, WWF Switzerland
Manuela von Arx
Zoologist, Kora Foundation for Carnivore Ecology and Wildlife Management