Awarded Bernd
E.C.O. employee receives Austrian National Park Research Award.
The Austrian National Park Research Award, which was awarded for the third time this year, honours young scientists who, with their doctoral and diploma theses, have made valuable contributions to the management of protected areas. The award was presented by the Federal Minister of Environment, Nikolaus Berlakovich, on 13th January 2009.
Among this year’s winners is E.C.O. employee, Bernd Pfleger. In the course of his master thesis for the “Management of Protected Areas” programme he developed and tested the European Site Consolidation Scorecard, a methodology to evaluate the management effectiveness of a protected area. This methodology has already proved successful in practice, e.g. in the evaluation of the Gesäuse National Park, which was concluded not long ago. In an adapted form, the master thesis also underlies the current guideline for the evaluation of Austrian National Parks.
Congratulations, Bernd, on your innovative and successful work.