Background and origin
Founded in 2025, ECONICS INSTITUTE e.V. is a spin-off from the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. University staff have created an independent institutional unit that builds on the groundwork laid over the past decade and a half, but also pursues new goals with external partners.
In 2011, Prof. Pierre Ibisch founded the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management as part of his research professorship at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. This was done in partnership with Prof. Peter Hobson from Writtle College in the UK. It was established as an instrument of international cooperation and for the pooling of activities and projects as part of the Department of Forestry and Environment. In 2013, the registered association Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management e.V. was also founded as an independent institution closely linked to the university. It was operated as a kind of support association for the academic center based at HNEE. It independently carried out small projects and consulting assignments and supported the work of the university with financial income, for example by financing staff and organizing public relations work.
After several years, Prof. Dr. Martin Welp’s working group became part of the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management. In the course of a reorientation of Writtle University College in England, the long-standing institutional cooperation was discontinued; however, the partnership with Peter Hobson remained intact.
The Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management benefited from the support of an advisory board, whose members include Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Uli Gräbener, and Ilke Tilders (founding phase).
From the outset, the overarching goal of the Econics team was to learn from ecosystems and to develop and test approaches for sustainable human development based on a systemic and ecosystemic understanding. The idea of econics emerged in 2010 while working on a report for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD Technical Series 54).
The Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management became one of HNEE’s most successful organizational units in terms of third-party funding, publications, and public relations. It also provided significant impetus for the university’s development. Among other things, it promoted doctoral studies at HNEE and internationalization. Numerous graduates of the university found long-term employment opportunities at the Centre for Econics.
Within the framework of local, national, and international projects and partnerships, the staff at the Centre for Econics not only strive to gain a better understanding of the functioning of ecological and social systems in a world characterized by rapid change and multiple crises through basic research, but also develop and test concrete management approaches. The transfer of current scientific findings and concepts into teaching and education is just as much a part of the Centre’s objectives as transdisciplinary cooperation with partners from various areas of society. The international master’s program in Global Change Management at HNEE (founding program director 2006-2007: Pierre Ibisch; program director since 2007: Martin Welp) was significantly supported and further developed by the Centre for Econics.
Starting in 2017, the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management, together with Prof. Vera Luthardt, Prof. Hartmut Rein, and the Michael Succow Foundation, worked to establish a competence center for UNESCO biosphere reserves. These efforts first led to the founding of a biosphere.center in the form of a GbR (civil law partnership) and finally, in 2019, to the establishment of the Biosphere Reserves Institute at HNEE, which was jointly headed by Vera Luthardt and Pierre Ibisch until early 2024 and ultimately achieved recognition as a Category 2 institute by UNESCO. As part of the establishment of the institute, the international mast’rs program in Biosphere Reserves Management was also launched.
Over time, the study of “socio-ecological systems” has become increasingly important. The prevailing view is that an “ecosystem-based” economy can and should also be “human-centered.” This idea has also been outlined in a draft for eco-humanism (book publication 2021: The Eco-Humanist Manifesto) – a continuation of ideas presented in the HNEE sustainability textbook Humans in the Global Ecosystem.
In addition to supporting research and teaching, the work of the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management has always included a special commitment to transferring topics and results to society.
A particular focus of work since 2020 has been the development of a socioecological forest management concept, which is intended to lead to a new type of degree program and scientific approach to forest management. The initiative was brought to the university by author Peter Wohlleben and receives broad content and financial support from a diverse civil society network.
The initiative for socioecological forest management and close cooperation with Peter Wohlleben and other partners led to the creation of the ECONICS Institute e.V., the new think tank for ecosystems.
In 2025, as part of the comprehensive restructuring of the University for Sustainable Development, its long-standing cooperation with the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management e.V. came to an end. The association became a founding member of ECONICS INSTITUTE e.V.
