Alfred Toepfer Scholarships

Each year the EUROPARC Federation in cooperation with the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S. awards three Alfred Toepfer Natural Heritage Scholarships to promising young conservationists with practical experience in the field of conservation and in the work of protected areas.

By supporting the participants financially the scholarships enable them to undertake a study visit to one or more protected areas in European countries other than their own. The aim being to enhance international cooperation and to advance the quality, innovation and European dimension of protected area management. The awards will each be worth EUR 3.000 and are generously donated by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation in Hamburg (D). They are presented to the scholarship winners each year at the annual EUROPARC conference.

Alfred Topfer Scholarships 2009

In 2009 the scholarships were awarded to Saira Sheldrake (UK), who will develop a tool to predict disturbance distances of the recreational sport of Kite-surfing on wintering and wading birds in protected areas with coastlines. Naomi Scuffil (UK) will visit the national parks in Germany and report back to us about the management of areas without human impact, so called “non-interventional-management-zones” and conflict management between species protection and landowners. Urszula Biereznoj (PL) will visit protected areas and environmental institutions in United Kingdom, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, to exchange knowledge, experiences and best practices of biodiversity conservation and Natura2000 management.

As the prize giving was at the EUROPARC conference in Sweden the three winners had the opportunity to attend the event and meet and talk to many practitioners in the field of protected area management. Comments from two of the winners highlight the success of the event:

“Thank you so much for organising everything and making our stay so fantastic! I feel really energised now with the direction I want to go in life – just needed a little help realising this!”, Saira Sheldrake

“I had a lovely time at the conference and it was good to meet so many interesting people”, Naomi Scuffil

Applying for the 2010 scholarships

Participation in the Alfred Toepfer Scholarship programme is open to individuals who are employed by a European protected area or a nature conversation institution and students and graduates of higher educational institutions (Masters and above).

In order to gather experience which will be both of benefit for the future career of the scholars and to the EUROPARC Federation and its members, individuals interested can apply for projects on specific themes only. These will be made available when the application period opens.

For detailed information about applying for the scholarships, please see guidelines for the 2010 scholarships below. Registration for 2010 will be opened on February 16th. From this date the online registration form will be available and accessible from these pages. Application will be open until 21st May 2010. Please inform anyone who might be interested about the scholarships.

For more information about the scholarships please contact office@europarc.org

Last updated February 2010