Admirable wildlife saviour Markus Jebsen dies in South African car accident

19 June 2021 rmedcalf ENVIRONMENT, OBITUARIES 0

^{Markus Friedrich Jebsen}

Markus Friedrich Jebsen, who has died in a car accident at Limpopo in South Africa at age 58, was an admirable man who did far more than most for wildlife. His work for animals was close to global in scale. Markus also founded the MF Jebsen Group, a commercial powerhouse in Hong Kong.

^{All photos: Auction4Wildlife}

“His death leaves a painful void in everyone whose life he touched,” his family said in a statement.

The accident happened on the road from Johannesburg to Zingala Estate in the north where Markus ran a large game reserve project. He owned 50,000 hectares near the Limpopo River where elephants, giraffes, crocodiles and hyenas roam freely.

Markus created the MF Jebsen Nature Conservation Foundation Ltd, which works with other NGOs preserving African parks and wildlife. A spinoff called Auction4Wildlife raises funds to try to stop species extinction. Markus put his own money behind a series of Aston Martin car sales totalling several million dollars. Some of this money went to protection of endangered species and some to back ecological programmes run by Kadoorie Farm.

Markus’s work for flora and fauna was international. He helped form Foundation Conservation Carpathia which works to preserve nature reserves in Romania, and Zingala and Limpokwena in South Africa. He was active supporting Martin Well Rangeland reserves in Australia as well as forest reserves in Denmark, Europe and USA. Markus created the Cobor Biodiversity Farm and bought 1000 hectares of land in Piatra Craiulu and the Fagaras Mountains, then donated it to Carpathia Wilderness Reserve.

As executive chairman, Markus presided over a conglomerate he founded called MF Jebsen Group. It diversified into multiple businesses including motor cars, agriculture and consumer electronics, among others. Markus was a direct descendant of Jacob Jebsen who founded the Jebsen trading group with Heinrich Jessen in 1895. Born in Hong Kong he was educated in the city, Denmark and the USA. Initially Markus worked in Germany, moving to Hong Kong in 1993 to join Jebsen & Co Ltd, one of the largest private trading firms in the city. He struck out on his own establishing MF Jebsen in 2002.