The European Commission’s Natura 2000 Award, which honours leading nature conservation achievements, is now starting its fifth edition. The call for applications has just been launched and will be open until 30th September 2019.

The Natura 2000 Award is dedicated to rewarding excellence in the management and promotion of the network and its objectives, and to raising awareness about Natura 2000 and its benefits to European citizens. To this end, in addition to the prizes for five categories attributed by an experts jury, an “EU Citizens’ Award” goes to the application receiving the highest number of preferences through an open public vote on the Award website. The winners will be announced by the future Commissioner for Environment at a high level ceremony in Brussels in May 2020.