Dr Christian Ruck, Facilitator of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Congo Basin Forest Partnership

Dr. Christian Ruck is an accomplished, high-level politician with proven expertise and a keen interest in nature conservation and forest management in the Congo Basin and beyond. He has worked both in Germany and internationally, representing his country in numerous international fora and has accepted several important mandates.

Born on 24 December 1954 in Augsburg, Christian Ruck attended the Humanist High School near St. Stephan and served his military service in Sonthofen. Dr. Ruck studied economics in Munich, Augsburg and Paris (Sorbonne). He graduated as an economist in Augsburg and received a “Diplôme Supérieur” from the Université de la Planification in Paris with a doctoral thesis on economic effects of national parks in developing countries for which he undertook research work in Africa. Christian Ruck served as Government Counsellor in the policy section "Transport Policy" at the Bavarian State Ministry of Economics and Transport. Dr. Ruck is married and has four children.

From 1990 to 2013, Dr. Ruck was a member of the Bundestag, the German Federal Parliament, and from October 2002 to November 2009, he was Chairman of the CDU/CSU's working group on economic cooperation and development. From November 2009 to 2013, Dr Ruck was Vice-Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Parliament and responsible for economic cooperation and development, environment and energy.

In 2013, Dr Ruck occupied the position of Director of the KfW office in Cameroon, with a broad portfolio, including the forestry sector. More recently, he covered KfW´s green sector portfolio in Tanzania.

Dr. Christian Ruck was recently appointed as Facilitator of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership

(CBFP) by the German Federal Government for the period 2020-2021.