Franz Weber (activist)

Franz Weber (born 27 July 1927 in Basel, Switzerland) is an environmentalist and animal welfare activist.

Franz Weber began his career as a journalist and reporter. After his studies of philosophy and linguistics at the Sorbonne University in Paris, he worked from his Paris office from 1951 until 1973.

Weber became actively interested in ecology and conservation in 1965, when he learned about efforts to conserve the Swiss mountain region, the Engadine Valley of the Lakes. Weber decided to invest himself in the rescue and safeguarding of this region by beginning an international press campaign. At the end of a seven years battle by Weber the Swiss Federal Government declared the Engadine Valley of the Lakes a "National Conservation Region" and put it under the State's protection. In order to be able to launch further campaigns, he quit writing for money and devoted himself entirely to the conservation of natural sites of special beauty and value in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Slovenia and Hungary, as well as endangered species in South America, Canada, Australia, Africa and Europe.

He founded the Franz Weber Foundation in 1975. The board is composed of 5 international personalities with Weber as president. The Foundation has today over 230,000 supporter members.

In 1997, in the presence of Émile Gardaz, Jean-Pierre Thiollet and some other personalities, the township of Delphi appointed him a Citoyen d'honneur.

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