EUROPARC strongly believes that young professionals have a vital role to play in caring for Europe’s natural heritage. Like everything else, the future of Protected Areas relies on the young generation taking an active and informed role. Each year the EUROPARC Federation, with support from the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung F.V.S., awards three Alfred Toepfer Natural Heritage Scholarships to promising young conservationists, who are committed to working for the benefit of Protected Areas. The aim of the scholarships is to enhance international cooperation and to advance the quality, innovation and European dimension of Protected Area management.

Each scholarship is worth €3.000 and enables successful applicants to undertake a study visit on a particular theme to Protected Areas in European countries.

While there are many opportunities for students to get scholarships to improve their skills abroad, there are few for those who have already entered the working world. Hence, the aim of this scholarship is to give the opportunity to those young professionals that have chosen to develop a career in Protected Areas, to improve their skills and learn from other professionals by carrying out study visits to Protected Areas across Europe.

The Alfred Toepfer Natural Heritage Scholarship 2022

Deadline for applications 29th of April, 15:00 CET

The Alfred Toepfer Natural Heritage Scholarship is a great opportunity for young professionals who have chosen to develop a career devoted to our natural and cultural heritage. The winners of the Scholarship will have the chance to improve their skills and learn from other professionals, by carrying out study visits in European Protected Areas. The call is open to all young professionals working in topics related to Protected Areas in Europe. Conditions to apply:

• candidates must be under 35
• have a European nationality (see the list of countries from the Council of Europe)
• be employed by a Protected Area or nature conservation organisation or be employed by an organisation that delivers its work  Protected Areas

Applications for study visits to prepare, or be any part of the delivery of  master or doctoral thesis will not be considered.

Download the Guidelines, FAQs and an overview of the application form 

ATS FAQs   ATS Guidelines   ATS Application Form example

>>>>> online application form <<<<<

5 steps to win your Scholarship:

1) Choose one category

The application must address one of the following selected themes faced by Protected Area Management:

2) Apply

To apply, candidates must submit:

• Online application form – this form includes your Curriculum vitae, your motivation letter, the proposed programme of your study visit, and contact details of the Protected Areas you want to visit
• Proof of employment if pre-selected

Applications are due on 29th of April (15:00 CET) and must be submitted online. Download the complete Guidelines and access the online application form.

3) Sustainability 

As a European wide network, international exchange is of high importance to EUROPARC. However, we also want to lead by example. This means critically looking at our practices and aiming to make them more sustainable. That is why for the 2022 call for scholarships, we ask applicants to consider how they can complete their study visits in the most sustainable way possible. For example through:

• Only visiting one Protected Area outside of your home country for a longer time period
• Using more sustainable means of transportation like public transport
• Offsetting your travel’s carbon emissions 

Any creative ideas are welcomed! You can provide them in the special section on the application form.

4) Be awarded at EUROPARC Conference 2022

The winners of the Alfred Toepfer Natural Heritage Scholarship will be awarded in France, at the second EUROPARC Conference 2022. It  is essential you are available to attend.

The Alfred Toepfer Stiftung E.V.S will generously cover your travel expenses and participation at Europe’s biggest gathering of Protected Areas professionals! The Conference will take place in Argelès-sur-Mer in France from 4 – 7 October 2022. The focus will be on Climate Change Adaptation. How can Protected Areas deal with Climate Change? What are the challenges and opportunities? What does successful adaptation look like? The EUROPARC Conference provides an excellent event for you to learn, network and share experiences on this exciting topic.

The winners of the Alfred Toepfer Natural Heritage Scholarship in Jurmala, Latvia – EUROPARC Conference 2019

5) Travel and Learn

The scholarship covers your travel costs to one or more protected areas in Europe. Visiting different countries enables you to gather new perspectives and deepen your subject of study. Check out the example of Marie Micol or Csaba Bereczki, who visited different Protected Areas in several countries, or Eduardo Batista who made a deep study in just one Protected Area.

You will find all the reports since 2007 in our library and on this page you can learn more about the past scholarship winners.

6) Share your results

After the trip, the scholars are expected to present the Federation their findings in a report and a short film. These reports are made available to EUROPARC members, as they are full of interesting facts on observation and solutions to common Protected Area management issues. Here’s some inspiration from Agné and Tymur!

For more information or questions, please contact communications@europarc.org.

The EUROPARC Youth Representative is a co-opted member of the EUROPARC Council. They will provide support and bring extra insight on youth related matters relevant to the work of Protected Areas.

At the end of 2021, EUROPARC started to process of finding a new youth representative. We received many applications from motivated young (<30) people all over Europe. All applications were then assessed by members of our Council and short listed candidates were interviewed last week. Now, we are happy to announce that Leonardo Cerno (27) from Italy will be the new Youth Representative until October 2024!

Who is Leonardo?

Leonardo is no stranger to EUROPARC. In fact, we asked him some questions in 2019 for the European Youth Week. He has lived on the border of the Italian Julian Prealps Nature Park his entire live. From 2007, he was active in the Park’s Junior Ranger Programme, both as a member and mentor. Leonardo also supported the implementation of the EUROPARC Youth Manifesto through the creation of the Youth Advisory Board.

His many years of experience have allowed him to develop a big network of young people around Europe, both in and outside of Protected Areas. Apart from being active in the youth groups of Prealpi Giulie, Leonardo has managed to turn his passion for nature into his job. Currently, he works as self-employed nature guide and as a park guide in the Julian Prealps.

All these things made the council decide that Leonardo would be the right person for the position.

As the Youth Representative at the EUROPARC Council, he wants to make sure other young people in Europe get the same great opportunities he had while growing up. He states: “Getting this news has really been a great moment for me. I grew up through EUROPARC youth programs and they gave a lot to me, I think they actually made a part of whom I am today. So now I’m more than pleased to get the opportunity to give back some of the knowledge and experience I gathered during these years.

I truly hope that every young person across Europe can get the same opportunities I had growing up, and I want to be part of the process of helping them to transform into something better.

I can’t wait to meet the members of the council and start working with them!”. Likewise, EUROPARC’s Council Members state:

We are happy Leonardo will be part of the EUROPARC Council. He’s a great example of the effectiveness of youth programmes in Protected Areas. We look forward to working together with him in the upcoming years.

The jury wants to thank all that applied for the position. All candidates showed commitment, interest and passion, which made the decision a hard one to make.

The European Charter for Sustainable Tourism (ECST) is a methodology to support sustainable development around Protected Areas. In 2021 three new Parks joined the “Charter Network”.

Sustainable tourism is Good for Parks, Good for People!

Logo of “The Charter”

Tourism is a booming business. It produces almost 5% of the world’s economic turnover, employs around 200 million people globally and is the fastest growing industry. Tourism is also one of the main economic drivers of Europe’s rural economies; directly and indirectly, it accounts for around 10% of European GDP and 20 million jobs. Protected Areas are drivers of tourism in rural areas, something that was only amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, it’s more important than we employ methods for sustainable tourism in our natural heritage. The ECST is a methodology that helps Parks and regional institutions create tourism that is good for Parks and good for people.

Three new members

Every year Parks around Europe start the process of joining this network of Sustainable Tourism experts. In 2021 we were happy to welcome three new Protected Areas:

Isola Pantelleria National Park

This National Park is located on the Island of “Isola”, situated in the Mediterranean Sea. Its location results in a unique mix of floara and fauna species.  The whole area of the island has now become Charter Area. The National Park hosts a number of ecological and touristic highlights. The most famous is the “Venus Lake”, which has a brilliant blue colour. However, it’s not just natural wonders that make this island so interesting for tourists. Traditional agricultural practices and the art of dry stone walls are also included on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The decision to join the Charter fits in with overall aims of sustainable development of the National Park, and we are happy to welcome them and see this development grow.

Isola Pantelleria National Park – Pantelleria Island © Clara Garsia

Ligurian Alps Regional Nature Park

The Natural Regional Park of the Ligurian Alpes is a Regional Natural Park – IUCN Category V. Specifically, within the park there are fifteen sites belonging to the Natura 2000 network: seven Special Protection Areas and eight Special Areas of Conservation. Although it offers many natural resources linked to outdoor activities like hiking, rafting, climbing and canyoning, the area’s annual visitors is limited. Through the Charter, the goals is to develop green tourism and support sustainable regional development, whilst involving a large group of stakeholders. The Park states:

For the Parco Naturale Regionale delle Alpi Liguri the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism is a great achievement.

“Local administrators, restaurant  and hotel owners, companies, guides and associations have worked together for the same territory; the Charter is the recognition of this collective and community commitment and, from now on, it will be a compass to work on the path traced in cooperation with the Park guided by the same objective and with the cardinal points of the Charter to make a concrete community.”

Ligurian Alps Regional Nature Park – Passo Pian Latte © Gabriele Cristiani

Vesuvio National Park

When visiting this Protected Area, you can feel the history that stretches back to the pre-Roman period. It’s an area, in which natural processes and human dynamics and settlements have always been tightly intertwined. The area includes touristic highlights such as the UNESCO World Heritages Sites of Pompei and Ercolano, a beautiful coastal belt and historic villas.

The National Park was established in 1995 and is listed under IUCN Category II. It encompasses over 1000 hectares of Forest Protection Reserve. Furthermore, together with the surrounding coastal belt and the Ville Vesuviane, the National Park is included in the Man and Bisophere (MaB) UNESECO Reserve “Somma Vesuvio e Miglio d’Oro”, established in 1997. The Park also includes Natura 2000 sites.

With so much to offer, the area is a hotspot for tourism. Especially the Great Volcanic Cone experiences a lot of visitors. In recent years, the National Park has taken considerate steps to create a more sustainable and high quality tourism, one of which is applying to become part of the Charter.

At EUROPARC, we are very happy to welcome them into our Sustainable Tourism Network and look forward to the future developments within these areas. Do you also want to become part of the Network? Then have a look at the application process here.

Vesuvio National Park – autumn sunset © Carlo Falanga