Bonn, Germany
April 29, 2005
The International
Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM)
regretfully has to announce the resignation of Bernward Geier
(photo),
its long-term employee and current Director for International
Relations. Bernward, who after working for the federation for
nearly twenty years now plans on seeking new challenges, made
the mutually agreed decision with IFOAM that their employment
relationship should terminate at the end of August. The official
farewell will take place in September at the IFOAM Organic World
Congress in Adelaide, Australia.
Bernward Geier’s first major engagement for IFOAM was with the
organizing committee for the 1984 international IFOAM conference
in Witzenhausen, Germany. At the time he was a research
scientist and lecturer at this world first Institute for Organic
Farming in Witzenhausen. Two years later, at the 1986 General
Assembly in Santa Cruz, USA, he became IFOAM’s new General
Secretary to the IFOAM membership; thus signalling IFOAM’s move
from being a purely voluntary organization to one with a
professional administration and management.
When Bernward started work for IFOAM the federation had some 80
active members in about 20 countries. Today the federation
unites about 760 member organizations coming from 106 countries
worldwide.
From the original first staff position the IFOAM team has grown
to 15 people employed at the HeadOffice, with more people
working in offices in Rome and Africa.
Gerald A. Herrmann, Vice President and Executive Director of
IFOAM emphasizes Bernward Geier’s enormous talent at social
coherence and team-building. “His empathy with all people has
brought together disparate individuals, and inspired every one
of us to achieve key personal and organizational goals. He
tirelessly helps people become aware of their own skills and
successfully integrates people into the world-wide organic
community. The fact that IFOAM functions so well as a lively
democracy with its unique spirit and membership identity has
been one of Bernward’s major achievements.”
For about ten years following his first appointment, Bernward
Geier had the sole responsibility for the management of IFOAM.
During this period the federation experienced a rapid and
impressive expansion period. At the end of 1996 Bernward was
joined by Thomas Cierpka as Managing Director. This allowed
Bernward to concentrate on his duties as Director for
International Relations, which included public relations work,
international advocacy and lobbying as well as organizing
conferences and events.
Under the responsibility of Bernward Geier IFOAM achieved the
following milestones:
-
About fifty international IFOAM conferences
were organized, including 11 Organic World Congresses.
-
IFOAM became accredited as a NGO observer
with the United Nations (UNO), Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), United Nations Committee on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).
-
IFOAM was represented, taking part as an
active participate, at all the World Summits since 1992 in
Rio, Brazil.
-
Cooperation and coalitions were arranged with
several other international NGOs such as the World
Conservation Union (IUCN), Greenpeace, SlowFood and the
World Wildlife fund (WWF).
Bernward Geier has served for and worked with
eight World Boards and five IFOAM presidents.
On reflecting about his time with IFOAM Bernward Geier said: “In
the two decades working for IFOAM I have always felt that I’ve
got more back than I could give to the organic movement. I never
had the feeling I was working for customers or clients, but
instead with friends from all over the world. It has been,
without doubt, a great privilege to have been entrusted and
supported by IFOAM for such a long period, allowing me to work
for the worldwide organic movement and thus have the opportunity
to contribute to ‘the world grows organically’. I appreciated
the opportunities I’ve had to facilitate and implement many
constructive and important changes to the federation. Now the
time has come for me to have a change. I don’t know yet what the
future will bring. I’m open for new challenges. Yet, no matter
where my way will lead me, I cannot imagine a life without close
ties to the organic movement, which has been the greatest
‘environment’ to work for.”
Gunnar Rundgren, the President of IFOAM, expressed his
appreciation of all Bernward Geier’s contributions: “The whole
world-wide organic movement has benefited enormously from the
work Bernward has done for IFOAM over 20 years. He almost
single-handedly made our Federation into a global player and his
ability to make contacts and open doors will be missed by all of
us. He always kept a firm commitment to the grass-roots and the
principles of our movement, something increasingly important in
this commercialized world.” |