Hugo Wilhelm Conwentz
Hugo Wilhelm Conwentz (1855, Sankt Albrecht near Danzig – 1922) was a German botanist and one of the founders of the natural protection concept. He was as well known for his paleobotany studies of Baltic amber. Conwentz studied in Wrocław and Göttingen. In 1876 he conducted paleobotanical studies as an assistant to Heinrich Göppert in Wrocław. In 1879 he was appointed director of the Westpreußischen Provinzialmuseums (West Prussian Provincial Museum) in Danzig, a position he held for thirty years. In 1906 he became state commissioner of the newly founded Staatliche Stelle für Naturdenkmalpflege in Preußen, a regulatory body for natural heritage conservation in Prussia. In his book, The Care of Natural Monuments With Special Reference to Great Britain and Germany published in 1909, Conwentz provides a guide to the protection of various natural habitats. The text was based on a lecture the Care of Natural Monuments, which was given at the Leicester meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1907.