Christoph, born in 1965, achieved a degree in forestry at the University of Munich, however was always drawn  to protect natural landscapes instead of logging them down. In 1993, Christoph initiated a research project  about wolves in the Romanian Carpathians, where he intended to spend 3 years. However, meeting his  Austrian wife Barbara, a fellow biologists and conservationist, in Romania, he never left the country anymore  and spent the next 10 years developing this initial research project into a complex multi-layer conservation  project upon wolves, bears, and lynx.

In 2003, after finishing the large carnivore project, Christoph and Barbara  set up a horse-riding business and spent the next years exploring Transylvania on horse-back. With the forest  restitution in Romania and the following clear-cuts starting in 2005 all over the mountains, they went back into  conservation and founded Foundation Conservation Carpathia with the goal to stop illegal cutting and to create  a world-class wilderness reserve. Since 2009, they have raised over 100m € for this project, which has  developed into the largest private land conservation project in Europe and have made huge steps to realise  this plan.