Story | 16 May, 2019

IUCN mourns the loss of fervent conservationist Dr Ljupco Melovski

With great sadness we received the news that Dr Ljupco Melovski, a full-time professor at the Institute of Biology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Skopje and one of the leading conservationists in South-Eastern Europe, has passed away at the age of 60.

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Photo: O.Avramoski

Professor Melovski was a doyen of environmental science in North Macedonia a long-time president of the IUCN Member Macedonian Ecological Society, a passionate botanist, a nature protection leader and a teacher of hundreds of young researchers and environmentalists.

He participated in the development of more than 15 scientific projects that resulted in the publication of more than 45 scientific papers and was involved in many expert project activities of applicative character, especially in the field of biodiversity and nature conservation. Professor Melovski participated in the drafting of the Law on Nature Protection of North Macedonia, the National Strategy for the Protection of Biodiversity, as well as many expert studies in the area of ​​environmental protection, both national and related to South-Eastern Europe. He was a member of the Macedonian Ecological Society since 1984 and its president since 2001.

At the University he was teaching several ecological subjects, such as Ecology and Eco-physiology of plants and environmental protection. From the outset, he was involved in the development of the scientific research project "Complex ecosystem research of the Macedonian oak planar ecosystem in the National Park Galicica", which resulted in his master's thesis "Dynamics of forest cover, annual decline, decomposition rate and release of CO2 from the soil of the Macedonian oak planar-ecosystem in the national park Galicica (1991), as well as the doctoral dissertation "Circulation of bio-elements in the Macedonian flat-ecosystem in the National Park Galicica” (1996).

The passing of professor Melovski is a great loss to the conservation community. IUCN extends its deepest sympathies to his family and colleagues. His contribution to nature conservation remains as a legacy that will live on through the efforts of his students and colleagues in the decades to come.