Countryside Management Association News

The Alfred Toepfer Natural Heritage Scholarships 2011 were awarded as part of EUROPARC’s annual conference by the Chairman of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Mr Andreas Holz.
The award, which is generously sponsored by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S., is given to three 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 (each worth €3.000) 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.
This year’s winners were Tünde Ludnai, Ross Watson and Robbert Casier:
Tunde Lundai's intention is to study the role of rangers in the different fields of management of Special Protection Areas (SPAs under the Bird Directive) and Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) under the Habitats Directive. She is not only trying to collect best practices from the sites to be visited, but would also like to share her experiences with colleagues in the target countries (Wicklow Mountains NP, Ireland and Biebrza NP, Poland). After her study visit she will work with the Baltic Environmental Forum in Lithuania to support the development of the ranger concept in Lithuania. Lithuania has currently no ranger service under the national and regional park administrations, but the process of setting up such a service has already started.
Ross Watson is 31 years old, lives in Scotland and currently works as Operations Manager for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds at Abernethy National Nature Reserve. His project aim is to develop European partnerships and information sharing in the field of grazing management across three different woodland habitats. He hopes to learn from experienced practitioners in Northern, Eastern and Southern Europe how they have managed to work with different interest groups to manage large areas of grazed land for the benefit of forest expansion, field layer and deadwood. In addition, he hopes to see, on the ground, how a dynamic grazing system is creating a more robust woodland for a wider range of species, knowledge that could be translated to the Highlands of Scotland.
His chosen study visit locations (Dovrefjell in Norway, the Bialowieza forest in Poland/Belarus and Porojhe in Northern Slovenia) are held up as exemplar sites in Europe for the project themes (forest expansion, field layer management, deadwood creation and management).
Robbert Casier comes from Belgium, is 24 years old and has a masters in geology. Until July 2011 he worked as Assistant Programme Specialist for the UNESCO World Heritage Marine Programme in Paris. He is the second winner in the history of the award whose scholarship project is specifically dealing with marine protected area issues. The general aim of his project is to increase communication and exchange of knowledge between MPAs and World Heritage marine sites in the Mediterranean Sea. He will do so by determining the most important threats and management gaps of all visited sites; investigating the common problems and challenges of the studied sites; demonstrating that more transboundary communication between MPAs and World Heritage marine sites can be beneficial for both parties; and by determining whether World Heritage marine sites can be considered as “examples of management excellence” for MPAs. His chosen target areas are Parc Natural de Ses Salines (Spain), Brijuni MPA (Croatia) and the Cres-Losinj dolphin reserve (Croatia).

Roger Cole
CMA International Adviser