Klaus Töpfer Fellowship Programme Kicks off in Berlin

Bonn, 22 September 2017 - the Klaus Töpfer Fellowship Programme for future Leaders in Nature Conservation from countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia took place on 20 September at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in Berlin.  The Programme takes an integrated approach to the development of personal capacity of early-career conservation professionals, by combining technical learning, management training and network development support.  It focusses on individuals with outstanding leadership potential while promoting the participants’ commitment and contribution to their home institutions.

For the period 2017-2019 in total 20 Fellows have been selected originating from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Georgia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Mongolia, Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Over the course of 18 months these Fellows follow four ten-day training sessions including a module dealing with conservation governance and policy. The role of Multilateral Environmental Agreements such as CMS will be explained during this module.

Last year CMS became a strategic partner of the Programme and therefore CMS Deputy Executive Secretary Bert Lenten was invited to address the kick-off meeting in Berlin.  In his speech, he highlighted that the Fellowship Programme is globally unique and supports awareness-raising about the Convention and its implementation.  He thanked the Government of Germany for this great initiative, which is now taking place for the fourth time since it was launched in 2012.

The Programme is named after Professor Dr. Klaus Töpfer, who is a renowned politician in Germany and has been strongly engaged in environmental policy during his career as former Federal Minister for the Environment of Germany as well as former Executive Director of UN Environment.

Last updated on 22 September 2017