Alfred Toepfer Medal

The Alfred Toepfer Medal, named after the founder of the EUROPARC Federation, Dr h.c. Alfred Toepfer (1894-1993) is awarded annually in recognition of a particular individual who has made a significant contribution to nature protection in Europe. The medal is presented at the annual EUROPARC conference.

Nominations for the Alfred Toepfer Medal 2012!

Our initial email on 30th January was unfortunately a little premature. We are currently awaiting news on the continuation of this medal. We apologies for any inconvinience and hope to have more information available here by the end of the week.

Hans Biebelriether wins the Alfred Toepfer Medal 2011

At the EUROPARC Conference 2011 in Bad Urach, Germany, the prestigious Alfred Toepfer Award was won this year by Mr Hans Biebelriether, who was nominated by the Bavarian Forest National Park (DE) and Czech protected areas. The laudation speech at the conference was given by Eberhardt Henne who has worked with Hans Biebelriether for a long time.

The Alfred Toepfer Medal, named after the founder of the EUROPARC Federation, Dr h.c. Alfred Toepfer (1894-1993) is awarded annually by EUROPARC in recognition of a particular individual who has made a significant contribution to nature protection in Europe. This year the award went to Dr Hans Biebelrieter for his work in international relations in the field of nature protection and his work in shaping protected areas across Europe and at home in Germany.

The National Park Bavarian Forest is Dr Hans Bibelriether’s PhD life’s work.  Since its foundation in 1969 he initially headed the national park authority in charge of building up the national park; from 1979 up to his retirement in 1998 he led the newly formed National Park Administration. In those three decades this forester PhD has worked hard and successfully for his vision to restore this largest protected forest area in Germany to primal forest.  It was under his leadership that this first German national park developed to be an outstanding and well known international nature reserve.

Dr Biebelriether has also worked intensively on in the field of European protected area management and has had a considerable impact on many functions of the development of large protected areas in Europe. He was the Vice-President of EUROPARC from 1984 – 1988 and continued his work for the Federation as its Secretary General from 1988 – 1995 when he set up the headquarters. From 1986 – 1994 he was also the European Vice-Chairman of the National Parks Commission of IUCN (today World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA)). In 1991 he played a lead role in the foundation of EUROPARC Germany and was its first chairman from 1991 – 1996. On top of that Dr Biebelriether was President of EUROPARC from 1996 – 1999.

Dr. Hans Bibelriether’s outstanding merits and his work in the following areas is commended with the Alfred Toepfer Award:

• realising the idea of national parks under the motto he devised „Leave nature to be nature “ in Germany,

• advancing the idea of national parks and the quality of protected area management on European level,

• developing the concept and setting up national parks in the former East of Germany,

• high profile communication of natural history knowledge,

• the exemplary development of structurally weak areas through large protected areas

• the development of transboundary cooperation in the spirit of international understanding

• initiating the programmes for exchange of experience and personnel between Europe, Asia and South America as well as the development of partnerships between the protected areas,

• his dedication as consultant to the IUCN and the European Council in the field of nature protection, as  scientific advisor of WWF Deutschland, as the member of the expert advisory board of Bund Naturschutz in Bavaria, Germany and evaluator of projects for the German Federal Environment Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt)

• and being the author of numerous text books and the magazine NATIONALPARK first published in 1974.

Previous winners

2010

The Alfred Toepfer Medal of the EUROPARC Federation was awarded at the Europarc 2010 Conference held in Abruzzo National Park in Italy to Senior Advisor Lassi Karivalo of Metsähallitus Natural Heritage Services. Mr. Karivalo retired from the Finnish agency this summer.

Lassi Karivalo received the medal for long and successful career in transboundary cooperation of protected areas. He helped develop the European certification system for transboundary parks called Transboundary Parks – Following Nature’s Design which was launched in 2003. He also helped initiate the network of certificated transboundary parks called the TransParcNet. The medal is awarded annually to a European protected area specialist.

The Council of the Federation thanked Lassi Karivalo for his activities in launching the Nordic-Baltic Section in early 2000’s. The cooperation between Nordic and Baltic protected area professionals has evolved as a result of that. The section has also helped them learn good practices from each other and enhance the management of protected areas of their own. The Nordic-Baltic Section has also improved flow of information within the area. The voice of the Nordic and Baltic protected areas is now better represented within the Europarc Federation.

"I am still very surprised, but at the same time proud of this distinction. I feel that the Medal is also a mark of appreciation for Finland’s Metsähallitus Natural Heritage Services and its active role in international cooperation in nature conservation" said Lassi Karivalo.

You may download the speech introducing Lassi from Lena Malmström and accompanying presentation as well as Lassi's speech itsself below.

2009

2009's successful nominee for the Alfred Toepfer Medal was Mr Gordon Millar who was nominated by Thomas Hansson from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Mr Hansson listed a number of Mr Millars achievements some of which can be seen below:

• Mr Millar started his National Park career at the age of 12 whilst on a school trip two years after the establishment of the UKs first national park in 1952.
• In 1968 get a full-time post with the Peak District National Park Warden Service, buys a house in Edale, in the heart of the National Park
• During the 1970s Mr Millar became an active member of the Association of countryside rangers. Promoting the value of ranger services coming together to exchange expertise and ideas.
• He had a famous discussion with rangers from Scotland, United States and Denmark on a boat trip on Loch Lomand that led the following year to the formal inauguration of the International Ranger Federation
• In 1992 he represented the Contryside Managers when the International Ranger Federation (IRF) was founded with a signed agreement between the Countryside Management Association (CMA), representing rangers in England and Wales; the Scottish Countryside Rangers Association (SCRA); and the U.S.Association of National Park Rangers (ANPR).
• At 6:30 on the evening of Sunday, May 21, 1995, as chairman of the International Ranger Federation, officially opened the First World Ranger Congress with the raising of IRF's flag - the green, blue and white ying-yang symbol.

The speech given by Thomas Hansson and the powerpoint presentation can be downloaded below.

All winners of the medal are entitled to attend the Alfred Toepfer Foundations annual summer camp at Gut Siggen in North Eastern Germany. Gordon attended the event this summer and tells us all about it in the article below.

2008

In 2008 the winner of the Medal was the retired Romanian forester Mr Walter Frank who was nominated by EUROPARC Germany for his fantastic work with Romania's ancient beech forests.

More information on the medal can be obtained from Regina Schoefer.