Description
Minguo LI-MARGRAF is the founder of the Tianzi Biodiversity Development Centre and former Deputy Director of the China Institute of Environment & Resources Protection for Minority Areas at Minzu University of China. Since co-founding Tianzi in 2003 with her late husband, Dr. Josef MARGRAF, she has pioneered an "ecology-based value co-creation system" that successfully transformed 6,600 acres of barren hills in Xishuangbanna into a thriving mountain rainforest, while playing a pivotal role in the UNESCO World Heritage inscription of the Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Forest Cultural Landscape. Her work uniquely integrates biodiversity conservation with the preservation of mountain ethnic cultures and sustainable economic development, serving as a global model for ecological economics.
LI-MARGRAF was nominated for the 2024 Nobel Sustainability Award in recognition of her exceptional contributions to biodiversity conservation and sustainable agricultural practices. She received numerous honors, including the UNDP's "China is More Beautiful Because of You" (2011) and the inaugural "China Ecological Hero Award" (2015). Expanding her impact beyond the tropics, she launched the "From Rainforest to Snow Mountain" initiative in 2019, which establishes a multi-altitude vertical living landscape system through projects like the Lijiang Traditional agriculture fields purification effort. Her enduring legacy lies in aligning local restoration practices with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, proving that ecological protection can drive both community prosperity and cultural heritage preservation.
