ABOUT EUROSITE

Melina is from the north of Germany and has always been fascinated by the beauty of nature and its residents while developing a strong interest in law.

She holds an LL.B. in Comparative and European Law from the University of Oldenburg and an LL.M. in European Law in a Global Context from the University of Groningen, where she focused on Environmental Law and Policies. Currently, Melina interns at Technopolis Group Belgium, where she works on environmental and climate policies in the Green Transformation Unit, supporting the design and implementation of several projects for the European Union and other clients in the public sector. In addition, she provides national legal expertise in the fields of Environmental EU, International, and German Law. She has previously worked on formulating and setting up conservation easements under the LIFE ENPLC project at Eurosite.

Melina is dedicated to ensuring nature conservation and biodiversity protection through the power of the law and policies following a cooperative and realistic approach.

Kyriakos graduated from the School of Forestry & Natural Environment of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with an MSc in Wildlife Management. He also holds a degree of Human Resources Management from the Kapodistrian University of Athens.

For many years, he has worked in the fields of forest management, wetlands ecology, rangeland management, public awareness, wildlife management, environmental education and stakeholder training. He is the editor of several publications and informative materials and the author of and contributor to studies, papers, courses, congresses, and magazines. He has a lot of experience working with NGOs and stakeholders.

Currently, as Office & Game-warden Director at the Hunting Federation of Macedonia & Thrace, he mainly deals with wildlife protection, public awareness, communication with state agencies, law enforcement, and habitat restoration. Kyriakos is a member of the Board of “Serres for Unesco” as Deputy for the Environment, contributing to the collaboration of local authorities to protect natural and environmental heritage. Kyriakos sees the environment not only as nature but as everything that surrounds us.

He loves music and has had his own radio show for 18 years at several radio stations in Greece.

Lander studied environmental management and has been working at Natuurpunt since 2019, where he coordinates the (LIFE) wetlands4Cities project. A project dedicated to wetland restoration in and around cities. He also coordinates the long-term wetland plan by Natuurpunt to work on wetland restoration throughout Flanders.

In his spare time, Lander likes cycling and travelling. He combines both by travelling around Europe by bike; he has done so in more than 20 countries, from Spain to Ukraine.

Miquel is a biologist specialising in nature conservation, with over 30 years of experience working for conservation NGOs in Catalonia and internationally (DEPANA, WWF, IUCN, Eurosite, UIAA, etc.).

He is the Director of Territory and Environment at the Foundation Catalunya-La Pedrera, where he has worked since 1998. The foundation is the largest land trust in Catalonia and helps protect a network of 27 natural sites visited by more than 400.000 people annually.

Miquel is a member of Catalonia’s Nature Conservation Council and the World Commission on Protected Areas (IUCN – WCPA), where he chairs the Privately Protected Areas Specialist Group. He was the first president of Catalonia’s Network of Land Stewardship, now the Network of Nature Conservation (XCN), where he serves as International Commissioner. He has appeared in numerous radio and TV programmes on nature and travel.

As a passionate birdwatcher and alpinist, Miquel has climbed many peaks in the Pyrenees, Alps, Andes, and Himalayas and has travelled to many natural areas worldwide in search of wildlife and wild lands.

Bohdan is a Senior Research Scientist who obtained his PhD in 1997 and won the Whitley Award for Nature Conservation (2007). Currently, he is the CEO and Director of the Danube-Carpathian Programme in Ukraine. He is an expert in conservation biology, plant ecology, conservation and protected areas management, species and habitats management, plant invasion, floodplain ecology and restoration ecology, and nature protection policy. Furthermore, he has 30 years of experience in research studies in biodiversity and natural resource management in various countries in Europe as well as Asia, and 17 years of experience managing international projects on nature conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources in the Danube-Carpathian Region. Bohdan worked as the leader of WWF Ukraine for more than 11 years and is the part-time Head of the Department of the Landscape and Biota Diversity, State Museum of Natural History at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Lviv, Ukraine.

Liliana has worked for the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority (DDBRA) since 1998. Currently, she coordinates the Department for Internal and International Relations, which was previously the Communications and Public Relations unit. Leading this team, Liliana developed a deep understanding of national and European policies and procedures and a broad skillset in managing intra- and inter-institutional networks. All these years, she has strived to find the most appropriate ways to pass the environmental information to the general public, with a special focus on nature areas managers, their success stories and lessons learned.

Nick has been working ‘outdoors’ for most of his life, obtaining an apprenticeship with the coppice association in 1992, working throughout England and Wales with the few remaining fulltime coppice workers.  Managing broadleaf woodlands for products and biodiversity Nick joined with the bioregional charcoal company and WWF to make sustainable charcoal for many large retailers in the UK, to help promote the dying trade and the importance of sustainable woodland management.  Nick spent time working on farms and in the forestry before being employed as an estate worker for the Countryside council for Wales. During this time, he was responsible for the practical management of some of Wales finest national nature reserves, being responsible for delivering the management across dozens of SSSI and SAC features, including SPA, Ramsar and Natura 2000 habitats. For over 20 years nick has been responsible for the management planning, the delivery and monitoring of NNR’s in south, west and mid wales, from the coast to the Mountains, and everything in between. Nick currently works for Natural Resources Wales, and besides his day job managing Nature reserves and Welsh estate government woodlands, he also is a qualified drone pilot and undertakes a vast array of remote sensing and monitoring work from forest for NRW and inter agency work.  Working from the bottom up Nick has a grounding in practical management through to planning, delivering and maintaining designated sites, with this knowledge he hopes to give a prospective into ‘on site’ delivery the practicalities and the logistics of Nature conservation works.

Carlotta has a BSc in Zoology and an MSc in Wildlife Management from Reading University in the UK. After a thesis and fieldwork on the ecology of a population of Eagle Owls in Spain, she returned to Italy to join WWF Oasi as a project officer working on projects in WWF Italy protected areas. She has worked on several aspects of nature reserve management, working closely with the over 40 WWF nature reserves. She coordinates daily management activities, national and international conservation projects, management plans, communication projects and nature reserve events at a local and national level. Currently, she coordinates daily management activities of the 40 nature reserves WWF Oasi manages, protected area events and WWF Oasi’s communication projects.

Kazimierz Rabski has a PhD degree as a physical-geographer. He has been working in the nature conservation sector since 1989, including nearly 5 years as Director of one of the Polish National Parks (Słowiński NP) and the next 5 years being the head of the department responsible for the international cooperation of the Polish National Parks at the Ministry of Environment.
Since 2002 Kazimierz has been working as independent consultant and expert in many state and business bodies responsible for the sustainable development and nature management of coastal areas. He is the Chairman of the Society for The Coast (EUCC-Poland), an NGO that is involved in active nature management and was the founder of Odra Delta Nature Park, the first large-scale active nature protection initiative in Poland, managed by an NGO. He has been associated with Eurosite since 1996.
Kazimierz is also known as TV programme and filmmaker, and producer of more than 230 broadcasted productions.

Christophe is an editor in chief for the French television. He discovered the Conservatoires d’espaces naturels when making a report about some sites a few decades ago. He then became a volunteer for the Conservatoires, which are one of the most important NGO’s in France, managing natural sites. The Conservatoires have over 10000 members, and 1000 employees who are employed everywhere in France. He became the president of the Conservatoire d’espaces naturels des Hauts-de-France in Northern France. Since 2019, Christophe is also the president of the national federation of Conservatoires.

Kevin graduated in Nature and Forestry education in 2010 in Belgium. Since 2011 he has been working for Natuurpunt, the biggest nature NGO in the Flemish part of Belgium. First as a team leader of the professional workers, later on as a field biologist to make management plans and coordinate nature restoration works for several Flemish and European projects. Through this work, he has become very experienced in Flora and habitat monitoring.
Apart from his professional career, Kevin is also active as a volunteer to manage some nature reserves in his neighbourhood and he is often outside looking for interesting nature scenes as a passionate nature photographer.

The professional life of Stanislav is connected with colourful mountain hay-meadows. During his PhD studies he was part of research group asking what helps plants on a meadow to live together in such a diverse community. Than he moved to the administration of the Krkonoše Mts National Park and started to take care of them. He likes to mow with scythe and is proud to be able to prepare scythe for mowing by himfelf (including pounding!). But his major role in the meadows team of the Krkonoše Mts is to monitor the impact of the farmers management. The team is trying to restore formerly abandoned meadows and to maintain the best bits of the meadows in as colourful state as they used to be under traditional farming.

Eva has a Biology MSc. from Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Her main projects focus on environmental education and ornithology. For the last 13 years she has been working at Thermaikos gulf Protected Areas Management Authority organising environmental education programs (working with thousand students and teachers) and coordinating monitoring programs for wild birds. The protected area of Axios delta feels like home to her, where she can spend endless hours in the field, monitoring wild birds.

Lefkios completed his BSc at the Department of Biology at the University of Patras in Greece. Afterwards, he went for a master’s study at Lancaster University (2004-2006) and got an MSc in Environmental Science.
Between July 2006 and August 2007, he worked as a full-time policy officer in BirdLife Cyprus. In August 2007 he was hired at the Government where he worked as an Environment Officer in the Department of Environment of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment.
In November 2010 Lefkios started working as a Conservation Officer at Terra Cypria – the Cyprus Conservation Foundation. In May 2015 he was promoted to Deputy Director – EU Policy coordinator and as of January 2017 he is the Executive Director of the Foundation.

Mathias is a biologist by training and has specialized in socio-ecological systems. Mathias is project technician in the areas of conservation and international relations of the Xarxa per a la Conservació de la Natura (XCN). The XCN is a second level NGO in Catalonia (Spain) with over 184 member entities and the aim to promote nature conservation through social engagement strategies, such as land stewardship and volunteering. Mathias is passionate about the Mediterranean landscape and discovering when ever possible new spots, and enjoys collaborating with citizen science projects.

Contact
cpoirters@eurosite.org

Education
International Business & Languages, University of Applied Sciences ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

Experience
Carlijn is Dutch and, together with the Finance Officer, forms the administrative backbone of the Eurosite Secretariat. She oversees the day-to-day financial and personnel administration of the organisation and financial reporting for various projects (LIFE, Interreg NWE, Horizon Europe, EUKI and others). She supports the overall governance of the network (Board, Council, Annual General Assemblies) and the running of the Secretariat, and oversees the implementation of our EU NGO LIFE Operating Grant. Carlijn started with Eurosite in 2002 and has more than 20 years of international work experience.

“I enjoy working for Eurosite, supporting the site managers across Europe that take care of the practical management of Europe’s nature sites, safeguarding our natural heritage. Eurosite is a very friendly network and is truly a ‘home for suits and muddy boots’. We all have common objectives and enjoy sharing our experiences for the benefit of nature.”

Contact
wmroz@eurosite.org

Education
M.Sc. Environmental Biology; PhD Environmental Biology, Jagiellonian University, Poland.

Experience
Wojciech is an experienced, highly qualified ecologist with 19 years of practical experience in nature conservation in various sectors. He has proven professional experience in several positions in very diverse multi-stakeholder projects: starting from field research technician, GIS technician and data analyst, independent researcher, head of the scientific department, large-scale project manager, national coordinator of natural habitats monitoring scheme, international expert and finally – independent ecological consultant and expert in nature conservation for WWF. At Eurosite, he will fulfil the role of Project Officer.

“I am considered as a very open-minded, team and task-oriented, flexible, innovative and creative person. I’ve also got a deep understanding of diverse socio-economic conditions. I’m keen on travelling and working in a multicultural environment.”

Contact
hvonsonntag@eurosite.org

Hans von Sonntag is a father of two, a happy husband and an award-winning film director in the advertising industry.

He started his career in 1989 in Berlin when the wall broke down as a news cameraman at 22. While directing and shooting for international companies and campaigns, he always tried to keep in touch with social issues by supporting campaigns of UNESCO, UNEP, private CSR activities and many more.

Today, the most pressing social issue is the exacerbating climate warming and the looming breakdown of habitats. If that is not appropriately tackled soon, humanity’s future is dire, and so is the lot of everyone else living on planet earth. Please fill in the species you like most.

Hans focuses on political campaigning for climate protection and environmental restoration, which he considers the same. He believes everyone can make a difference and thinks of Eurosite as a great place to meet like-minded people and have exciting opportunities.

You can check out his thoughts here and his work here.

“Sticking to Andy Warhol, I love to do things over and over again. And why is that? Because I want to know how the outcome will be this time around.”

Contact
chalevy@eurosite.org

Education
B.Sc. Business Administration, HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, the Netherlands; M.Sc. Environmental Sciences (Earth System Governance), Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

Experience
Carolina is originally from Germany. As a student she led the business team of the Hogeschool Utrecht at an international competition of the U.S. Department of Energy (Solar Decathlon), worked as a research assistant at Utrecht University, took an active role in university governance as council member and class representative and followed the European Institute of Innovation & Technology Climate-KIC programme. She previously worked for the Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Natuurmonumenten, and the Reef Renewal Foundation International. At Eurosite, her main role is the management of the LIFE project “European Networks for Private Land Conservation” (www.enplc.eu). She is the European representative at the International Land Conservation Network (ILCN).

Contact
mvidal@eurosite.org

Education
BSc Environmental Biology (Land), University of Lisbon, Portugal
MSc Environmental Biology (Behavioural Ecology) Minor in Business Management, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Experience
Monica is an Ecologist from Portugal with broad experience in the Environmental sector. She started in several small conservation NGOs in Portugal, South Africa, and Greece. After spending a year in the Greek mountains, she returned to the Netherlands where she worked as a Project Assistant for Wageningen University & Research, and as a Field Surveyor in the private sector. In 2022, she joined the LIFE programme team as a Trainee in the European Commission and is now working with Eurosite on the implementation of several EU funded projects since 2023.

“I believe there is a way to interact in harmony with Nature and acknowledge the complexity of the systems we are part of.”

Contact
ldankaart@eurosite.org

Education:
Bachelor, Accounting, Fontys Hogeschool Eindhoven
Master of Arts, English Language and Culture

I started my career as an English teacher but soon switched to administration. After more than a decade working as an assistant accountant for various accounting firms, I switched again, this time to Eurosite.
As an assistant to Carlijn, I work on the organisation’s day-to-day financial and personnel administration and financial reporting for Eurosite’s projects.
The world of international nature conservation is new to me. Still, it is gratifying to work for the Eurosite secretariat, which helps its members to improve nature on a European scale. The positive energy and enthusiasm are inspiring.