Research Award for E.C.O.

In 2010, the Prealpi Giulie Regional Nature Park (Italy) offered prize monies amounting to EUR 2,500 in order to promote research in the nature park region and to reward particularly interesting projects. On 15 May, the winners were honoured in Venzone with the “premio per tesi di laurea” award. Among them was the project by Sigrun Lange (E.C.O. Germany) on trans-border cooperation in conservation area management, which was developed in the context of the “Management of Protected Areas” MSc course at the University of Klagenfurt.

This project examined, among other things, the nature park’s cooperation with the neighbouring Triglav National Park in Slovenia. During the research it was discovered that the cooperation, which was initiated some 15 years ago by the small Italian conservation area in order to benefit from the Slovene experience, was supported by a deep mutual friendship and appreciation – a great example of how cooperation in nature conservation can contribute to international understanding in a region that just twenty years ago was separated by different political systems. Sigrun Lange plans to use the prize money of EUR 750 to fund a further visit to the area, in order to jointly consider how applied research can be promoted in the nature park.