WWF-Education For Nature (EFN) programme awarded 2016 fellowships to three Myanmar students on 18th September at Taw Win Garden Hotel, Yangon. Two Myanmar students who received fellowship awards in 2015 also joined the event.
WWF-EFN provides financial support to proven and potential conservation leaders globally. Following their studies students return to their home country to work in conservation for two years. EFN has operated in Myanmar since 2014.
Around 100 people applied for this year's EFN fellowships and a panel of experts from WWF-Myanmar and WWF-US assessed and shortlisted 18 applicants. Details of the shortlisted applicants were then passed to a panel of well-known external experts from Myanmar’s environmental conservation field who made the final decision.
"This year's applicants are outstanding," said Thiha Oo, Capacity Building Coordinator, WWF-Myanmar. “It was a tough time for us to choose three fellows out of them. I hope we will afford to support more fellows in coming years.”
" It is a great honour for me to be in the selection panel," said Aung Kyin, former Rector of University of Forestry. “ We saw that a lot of applications are very promising and well prepared. I would like to support all the shortlisted students if we don't have budget limitations.”
Among this year's fellows, Win Maung Aye will join a Doctoral course on Tropical Forest Ecology and Management and is planning to do an ecological study on structures and functions of mangroves and future trends for development of sustainable mangroves ecosystem management in Myanmar’s Taninthayi Region.
" I really appreciate WWF's EFN programme supporting capacity building of Myanmar people," said Win Maung Aye. " It is really inspiring that Mr. Russell E. Train, who started the EFN program, was an ardent believer in the need to build local capacity for biodiversity conservation and natural resource management. Everyone supported through the WWF-EFN programme will be a great asset for Myanmar's conservation future."
Thuzar Aung will pursue her Master of Science course in Environment Engineering at Humberg University of Technology in Germany and Myat Thu Kyaw will join Asian Institute of Technology's MSc course on Environment Engineering and Management in Thailand.
According to EFN Fellowship programme’s specification, all of them have to begin their studies within a year.
The event was attended by some local media and news coverage can be seen below.
Please visit following link for MRTV's news coverage. https://youtu.be/0JRJynJYPl4
