Dear European rangers,
Just one good month to go, then we will meet more than 220 of you, rangers and nature conservationists involved in ranger work, from 34 countries at the 6th European Ranger Congress in Romania! While we are extremely excited to reunite and establish new friendships across Europe and beyond, for us on the ERF Board, this also signifies internal changes.
As some of us are stepping down and others are standing in for their current or new roles, we invite all our regular members to apply for one of the board positions! Find out more by clicking on the image below – an inspiration from one of our on-site meetings, including former board members, while not picturing those not present or not yet on board:
Alongside all our anticipation, we see how high our conference topic should be on the agenda for all institutions in our society. For example, right in the region of the 6th ERC: this summer, it was overshadowed by the fatal bear attack on an Italian tourist. Not only do tourists repeatedly feed bears, but even some locals attract bears to provide a tourist attraction – while public institutions do not provide enough staff to enforce the feeding ban. Our interview shows how important nature interpretation by rangers is for bulding a bridge and helping people to deeply understand why feeding bears is so dangerous.
On a more positive note, we highlight an initiative by volunteers who recognise the important role of rangers as bridge builders: In their completely non-profit project, they contribute to it as volunteer rangers sensitising hikers on the most important Alpine routes in Switzerland about the fragile biodiversity.
Rangers are also repeatedly called upon to protect people from natural disasters such as forest fires. Sadly, this has also led to fatal casualties among our member organisations this season. Our newest member, the Forest Protection Officers Association Turkey, mourns the loss of many colleagues in particular. We are profoundly saddened and extend our deepest condolences. However, we are convinced that there will be lots of encouraging news to come as part of our international ranger family: a heartfelt welcome!
Finally, this month has shown us once again how many good friends the European ranger family has: Not only were we able to use a one-pager on the European Ranger Congress to attract sponsors for rangers with limited funds – generously and professionally designed by our partner Erlebnis Akademie AG. We were also invited by the owner of our partner, planning office OPUS, to give a lecture on rangers to his students!
With great gratitude for our strong friendships & full of anticipation for future ones
Urs Reif, President of the ERF
