Puri Canals: Alfred Toeper Medal winner 2022!
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Yearly, EUROPARC awards the Alfred Toepfer Medal to those who have made significant contributions to nature conservation.
The Medal
The Alfred Toepfer Medal is named after the “founding father” of EUROPARC: Dr h.c. Alfred Toepfer. Individuals, that have made a significant contribution to nature conservation through a lifelong body of work are recognised with the Medal. The medal is awarded by peers: it are the EUROPARC members that can nominate someone. The EUROPARC Council then internally votes on the winner.
Purificació Canals i Ventín
During our award ceremony at the EUROPARC Conference in France, we were able to award the Alfred Toepfer Medal again, the first time since 2019! The award was presented to Puri Canals from Spain.
Puri Canals represents the commitment to nature conservation through scientific knowledge and activism. Her work has been carried out on a local, national and international scale. Her drive for marine conservation, particularly in the Mediterranean, is outstanding.
Her social commitment to environmental issues and especially to nature conservation is evident in her frontline activist CV: President of DEPANA (association created in 1976 for the defence of Catalonia’s natural heritage), vice-president of IUCN (2005). Currently, she is president of MedPAN, the Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas Network, which aims to facilitate exchanges between Mediterranean marine protected areas in order to improve the efficiency of their management. Additionally, she is the Associate Professor of Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili.
Moreover, she was the team leader of the EU project “Transatlantic partnership for MPAs” (2016-2019) and in particular coordinator of the twinning of networks of MPA managers. She is currently the team leader of the EU Ocean Governance project (2021-2023) that is related to cooperation between networks of MPA managers, resilience, marine mammals, restoration in South-East Asia.
An impressive CV, well-deserving of this recognition.
Puri could not attend the award ceremony, however, she did travel to Argeles-sur-Mer to accept the Medal in person:
Congratulations to Puri!
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