Call for Nominations: Young Conservationist Award

The International Ranger Federation (IRF) and IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) call for nominations for the prestigious Young Conservationist Award.

The award aims to recognize and raise awareness of the outstanding contributions made to the management of protected areas, and leadership shown, by young conservationists. It also seeks to encourage young professionals and help them develop networks by inviting winners to join WCPA.

Nominations/applications are invited for or from young people working in conservation and actively managing protected areas. This includes all people working in protected areas, such as (but not limited to) rangers, interpreters, people working with local communities, policy makers and scientists, including people working for government agencies, the private sector, non-government organizations, local communities, etc.

Nominations/applications must be submitted for or by:

• young field practitioners (under the age of 35)
• for any outstanding contribution (single incident or sustained/ongoing commitment) towards protected area management (from a local to a global scale)

The young professional's work must show:

1. Extreme dedication to protected areas
2. Capacity to deal with adversity
3. Working over and above the normal call of duty.

The Young Conservationist Award Review Panel will judge the degree to which the candidate demonstrates:

• Passion, dedication and commitment
• Degree of innovation (thinking outside of the box)
• Self sacrifice (time, costs, physical, bravery, etc)
• Scale/extent/magnitude/impact of contribution (area and duration).

Submissions:

• an updated CV (maximum two pages)
• letters from referees (maximum of three)
• a short submission (maximum of 450 words) on the nominee's contribution, with special reference on how this contribution benefited/s and improved/s protected area management.

Benefits for the awardee:

• IRF/WCPA Young Conservationist Award Certificate 
• Membership in WCPA, the world's premier network of protected area experts
• Publicity on WCPA and IRF websites

Applications should be sent preferably via e-mail to:

Sarah Gindre
Programme on Protected Areas
The World Conservation Union (IUCN)
Rue Mauverney 28
Gland, CH-1196, Switzerland
Phone: + 41 (22) 999-0161
Fax: + 41 (22) 999 0025
E-mail: sarah.gindre@iucn.org