2 . Every year, young, talented, and ambitious nature conservationists from all over the world participate in the presentation of the Future For Nature (FFN) Award, an honorable international award.

The Future For Nature aims to:

• Reward and fund individuals for their outstanding efforts in the protection of species of wildlife.

• Encourage winners to sustain their dedicated work.

·• Help winners to raise their profiles, extend their professional network and strengthen their funding basis.

Benefits

• The winners each receive 50,000 euros and may make their own decision to spend the money in the service of nature conservation.

• FFN offers the winners a platform and brings their stories to the attention of conservationists, financiers and a wide audience, allowing them to increase their impact and gain more access to funds.

• FFN is building a growing family of winners, dedicated people who form a community of people with the same interest. FFN offers them the opportunity to meet each other and continue to learn with each other in order to continue their fight for nature as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Qualifications

The candidate (候选人):

• Must be born on or after the 31st May 1988 and before the 28th of August 2005.

• Is able to explain his/her conservation work in fluent English (written and spoken)

• Has achieved substantial and long-term benefits to the conservation status of one or more animal or plant species.

• Must be determined to continue his/her conservation work, as the Award aims to stimulate the winner’s future work. It is not an “end of career” prize.

Additional Remarks

For the 2024 Future For Future Awards, we are again searching for natural leaders, who have proven that they can make a difference in species’ survival.

From all applications, 6 to 10 nominees (被提名者) will be selected. These applicants will be asked to provide additional information, which will be used to select the final Awardees. Ultimately, three inspiring wildlife heroes are selected as the winners.

Application Process: Apply online through the Apply Now link.

Application Deadline: 28^th August, 2023

6 . Sitting in the garden for my friend’s birthday. I felt a buzz (振动) in my pocket. My heart raced when I saw the email sender’s name. The email started off: “Dear Mr Green, thank you for your interest” and “the review process took longer than expected.” It ended with “We are sorry to inform you…” and my vision blurred (模糊). The position—measuring soil quality in the Sahara Desert as part of an undergraduate research programme — had felt like the answer I had spent years looking for.

I had put so much time and emotional energy into applying, and I thought the rejection meant the end of the road for my science career.

So I was shocked when, not long after the email, Professor Mary Devon, who was running the programme, invited me to observe the work being done in her lab. I jumped at the chance, and a few weeks later I was equally shocked—and overjoyed—when she invited me to talk with her about potential projects I could pursue in her lab. What she proposed didn’t seem as exciting as the original project I had applied to, but I was going to give it my all.

I found myself working with a robotics professor on techniques for collecting data from the desert remotely. That project, which I could complete from my sofa instead of in the burning heat of the desert, not only survived the lockdown but worked where traditional methods didn’t. In the end, I had a new scientific interest to pursue.

When I applied to graduate school, I found three programmes promising to allow me to follow my desired research direction. And I applied with the same anxious excitement as before. When I was rejected from one that had seemed like a perfect fit, it was undoubtedly difficult. But this time I had the perspective (视角) to keep it from sending me into panic. It helped that in the end I was accepted into one of the other programmes I was also excited about.

Rather than setting plans in stone, I’ve learned that sometimes I need to take the opportunities that are offered, even if they don’t sound perfect at the time, and make the most of them.

9 . Britain is arguably the great walking nation. About two-thirds of us already head out to stretch our legs once a week. The following festivals offer a wealth of organized walks, but walkers should register in advance.

Prestatyn and Clwydian Range festival

Visitors to Wales tend to move west, to either the well-worn tracks of Snowdonia or the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. There are 25 walks packed into the three days, with various options available, including a half-mile Roman-themed adventure, an eight-mile walk exploring the life of 18th-century Welsh naturalist and travel writer Thomas Pennant and a 21-mile Offa’s Dyke challenge. All walks are free.

Denbighshire, Wales, 19-21 May

Otley walking festival

This local festival has grown from humble origins in 2000 into a busy schedule of 50 short-distance walks and events celebrating the lives and landscapes of Wharfedale in West Yorkshire. One might enjoy the Five Pubs Walk, Walking With Wine, Four More Pubs or Lost Pubs of Otley. All walks are free, though there is sometimes a small charge for transport.

Otley, West Yorkshire, 24 June-3 July

Dartmoor offroading walking festival

Dartmoor delights (使高兴) walkers because, while tracks are there to be followed, the lack of wire and other barriers, and the relatively small number of farm buildings on the higher ground, create a sensation of freedom. The six free wheelchair walks, starting daily at 11am, explore Dartmoor’s industrial history, bronze age valuables and Victorian railway builders.

Devon, 27 August-2 September

Gower walking festival

With more superb walking options inside a single landscape than perhaps anywhere else, the Gower peninsula (半岛) sometimes feels as if it’s all coast. The further information for this nine-day festival, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Wales Coast Path (WCP), has yet to be finalized. Half of the walks offered during the festival will be on the coastal path, £10 adults, over-sixes £6.

Glamorgan, 2-10 September