Question: To What Extent did the Future For Nature Award Affect Their Careers?
Question: To what extent did the Future For Nature award affect their careers?
In October we asked our Facebook followers what their burning questions were for the FFN Award Winners. Thirza van Walraven’s question was: To what extent did the Future For Nature award affect their careers. We sent this question to Maggie Muurmans, FFN Award winner of 2009 and this is her answer:
I would say that as a Dutch winner and the media exposure I received nationally, mainly because of the presence of David Attenborough at the time, I have had certainly a push in the promotion of my work. As I ended up in a number of television programmes and talk shows, I was contacted by a number of fellow Dutch conservationists who were working in Indonesia, with whom I am still collaborating today. I am also still benefiting from being able to provide opportunities for internships and placements for students from my old University due to the acknowledgement within the University as an alumni.
Caption: Maggie with sea turtle
In summary, my network has expanded with new friends and colleagues who are now collaborating all across the world towards conservation. It has provided work opportunities outside the initial scope and I am working on even bigger projects at the moment because of that.
