Michael Gödde, age 54, graduated as a geographer and landscape ecologist at the University of Münster. He wrote his thesis on “Vegetation in Cities” at the faculty of Biology at the University of Dusseldorf in the year 1986. He is currently the Head of Nature Conservation, Landscape Planning, Forestry and Hunting of the City of Berlin.

Gödde is co-founder of the Biological Station Zwillbrock (1984) and the Foundation Stiftung Naturlandschaften Brandenburg (2000). He is member of the board Stiftung Naturschutz Berlin and other organisations, and member of the German board of Nature Conservation Directors.

He has been working at the Universities of Dusseldorf and Hamburg, for the Cities of Dusseldorf and Bremerhaven, and as head of the Finance Unit and later the Nature Unit in the relevant Brandenburg ministries.

His field of expertise encompasses landscape planning, nature conservation, history of nature conservation, vegetation science, wilderness, forestry, hunting and co-operation with the public and companies.