Klaus Toepfer Fellowship Programme: Open call for Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia

Vilm Island - Picture from Pixabay

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The Klaus Toepfer Fellowship Programme is implemented by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN):  the central scientific authority of the German federal government for both national and international nature conservation. It is an integrated approach to the development of the personal capacity of early-career conservation professionals. It combines technical learning, management training, and network development support.

Opportunity for Nature Conservation leaders in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia

Federal Agency For Nature Conservation Website – Klaus Toepfer Fellowship Programme. Photo: T. Garsteck

The objective of the programme is to strengthen organisations within the nature conservation sector in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, by developing the personal capacity of emerging conservation professionals. Overcome the global biodiversity loss and take the role as future leaders in Nature Conservation are the main objectives of this programme.

The programme 2020-2021 will start in spring 2020 and is extra-occupational, combines learning on international best conservation practice and policy with management training, network development and a transfer project.

Over a period of 18 months, four training modules are conducted at the International Academy for Nature Conservation on the Isle of Vilm in English language. Each module includes eight days of on-site training and a two-day excursion to leading nature conservation institutions and sites based in Germany. The modules combine management and leadership training with joint learning on key conservation topics such as:

  • Module 1 “Informing Conservation”
  • Module 2 “Conservation Management in a Spatial Context”
  • Module 3 “Conservation Economics and Financing”
  • Module 4 “Conservation Governance and Policy”

The application period for the 2020-2021 cycle of the Klaus Toepfer Fellowship Programme is now open. Application deadline is 10 October, 2019.

You can apply now!

Requirements

Federal Agency For Nature Conservation Website – Klaus Toepfer Fellowship Programme

The Klaus Toepfer Fellowship Programme targets early-career conservation professionals currently working in the natural resource sector (government, NGOs, Academia or similar), fluent in English and with at least three years of professional experience, and preferably are not older than 35 years.

Potential participants have the support of their home organizations to attend the course and are committed to play a central role in nature conservation in their home countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Northern Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), the Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) support the Klaus Toepfer Fellowship programme.