Supporting promising young talents in the field of nature protection with the Klaus Töpfer Fellowship Programme

Between November 2015 and January 2017, the German Federal Agency for Nature Conversation (BfN) – working closely with the Federal Environment Agency – carried out the third Klaus Töpfer Fellowship Programme. This development programme for early-career conservation professionals is aimed at future decision-makers from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, getting them qualified for leadership roles in national and international nature conservation. The Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) finances the training programme, which aims to respond to the need to train up young leaders in the region and to pass on experiences in nature conservation gained in Germany and throughout the European Union.

Over a period of 15 months, training modules with a two weeks duration took place at the BfN’s International Academy for Nature Conservation (INA). The early-career conservation professionals were offered professional supervision, imparting the necessary technical expertise and readiness for management needed for them to be able to deal with current challenges in nature conservation like the progressive loss of biodiversity or the implementation of multilateral nature conservation treaties.

adelphi was responsible for the overall moderation of the four class-based modules and also supported the BfN in choosing and supervising the professional trainers. In addition, adelphi was assisting participants over the entire duration of the programme, focusing on the professional preparation of their transfer projects - a programme-accompanying project to transfer the knowledge gained throughout the programme into practice.