Nikolas Fricke

Areas of Expertise

Biography

Nikolas studied “Agricultural Sciences“ and “Sustainable Resource Management“. He spent his childhood in a farmers village in the south of Germany. The rural environment nurtured a deep love for nature. He was lucky to have the opportunity to travel from a young age, which gave him the opportunity to experience the middle east and several other countries at a very early stage in life. As a young boy and in his teenager days he was active in the evangelic church, which assisted his parents in giving him a profound set of core values. At youth camps he got to know the beauty of team and common sense. One year after Apartheid in 1995 he travelled to South Africa where he met a small heard of elephants to which he built a close bond that lasts until today. In 2004 he guided a research-team on an expedition to the arctic, where he was following the footsteps of the „German Arctic Expedition 1912“. Supported by the biggest german icebreaker „FS Polarstern“ Nikolas made surveys in the north east of Svalbard. Here he experienced climatic crisis first hand when he was sailing to the north of Greenland. Instead of breaking and sailing through ice, he only found open waters on 85° north, which was not normal at all for the season of the year. This experience was life changing for him. After a second artic expedition to Svalbard in 2005, Nikolas turned his attention further south. In 2008 and 2009 he joined a research-team for a population study on the conservation of the coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) in Kenia, Tansania and the Comoro Islands. Exploring maritime life in over 200m depth and experiencing human grievance in one of the poorest countries on earth has again been a life changing experience for Nikolas. In 2010 he designed the „Into the Wild“ course for students and young people from all over the world to bring them into the reality of human nature conflicts and nature conservation. After an overwhelming success of these courses he knew that the time had come to bring the great potential of people together to make a positive change on our planet. Nikolas founded Conservation Global in 2011 together with Greg and Alexis.

Educational Background

M.Sc. Sustainable Resource Management

BSc. Agricultural Sciences
Technical University Munich, Germany