The National Stage Contest is organized in schools or other institutions in the participating countries. The Contest consists in answering the test questions (50 questions with four optional answers including only one correct answer). The questions refer to the forests and forestry in Europe as a whole and in  specified countries. The scope of the questions does not exceed the educational materials published on site Meet the Forests and in

According to  the general YPEF  Rules of the Contest there are detailed rules of the National Stage Contests that are established by the National Contest Commissions. The national forest contest organized in a different way may be recognized by the YPEF International Commission as the respective YPEF National Stage Contest.
The winners of the YPEF national level will participate in the  European Stage Contest.

The National Stage Contest took place on 24th of April 2012 at the Technical Forestry High School Bruck / Mur (Styria), Dr. Theodor Körnerstrasse 44, 8600 Bruck / Mur.

In Austria the Contest was organized by the Union of Austrian Foresters and supported by the Ministry of Life.

The Contest language was Englisch. The Contest had two parts:
1^st category: list of questions
2^nd category: short Power point presentation about forest and environment

Participants are the students from 2nd, 3rd and 4th classes - Forestry High School. (2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 4a and 4b)

13 students came to the final round.

The National Commission decided:

Winner are:

1. Mr.   Johannes Rieder (4b),
2. Mrs.  Alexandra Russ (3a),
3. Mr.   Dietmar Wöls (4b)

The 3 winners will go to Estonia to the International Contest, together with Mrs. Prof. Bettina Gailberger (Member of National Commission and Professor at Technical Forestry High School Bruck an der Mur), Mr. Thomas Baschny (President of National Commission) and Mr. Wolfgang Schweighofer (Vice-president of National Commission).

Ing. Thomas Baschny
(President of National Commission)

•  National stage in Czech Republic. 

Regional rounds took place in four cities: Hranice, Písek, Trutnov and Žlutice and almost one hundred students from different primary schools and high schools participated. Winners of regional rounds (one team of three students from each region) will meet at the National round at Kostelec nad Černými lesy on  Wednesday 16. 5. 2012. Regional rounds had two parts. The first part consisted from written test about Czech and European forests, the second part was practical examination of knowledge trees and other nature parts. More info (photos included) at: ypef.cz.

The first step of the YPEF National stage in Czech Republic is organized in four regional rounds. Three of the regional rounds took place on 26th of April, the last one will proceed on 30th of April. 

National round, where the best participants from regions will qualify, will take place on 15th – 17th of May.

•  National stage in Estonia.

1. YPEF Estonian Stage is held in Estonian;

2. Number of teams per school is not limited;

3. Team members are pupils in the age from 13 to 19;

4. Teams are formed of 2 or 3 pupils;

5. In every team there must be at least one English speaking pupil;

6. Sets of questions are sent to every school via land mail according to the number of teams registred;

7. Quiz is held in the school by school’s instructor;

8. The envelope with questions must not be opened before the announced time of the quiz;

9. Estonian Forest Society has the right to visit schools without notice during the quiz to examine that the organisation of the quiz is done according to the Estonian Stage rules;

10. Quiz is composed of 50 questions and every question has 4 multiple-choice answers;

11. Questions concern forestry and nature protection in European countries;

12. Teams have 1,5 hours to answer the questions;

13. If the first place is divided between multiple teams, a run-off is held to find the winner;

14. The winning team participates in the final, which in 2012 is held in Estonia, Sagadi;

15. Registration to the competition is open until the 23 March 2012;

16. Competition in schools is held on the 4 April 2012;

17. The results of the quiz are announced on 11 April 2012;

18. Protests about the  results are accepted until 18 April 2012. 

•  National stage in Greece.

The Greek contest will take place on 19 of May.The official language of the contest is English.

The YPEF Greek Stage is organized by the National Commission, which was designated by the Management Body of Parnitha National Forest Park, and was supported by the Special Secretariat for Forests. The Contest will take place on Saturday 19 May 2012 at the Technological Educational Institute of Athens. The contest language is English.
Participants of the National Stage are students aged 13-17, from secondary schools of Prefecture of Attiki. Students compete in teams of 2 persons. Registration is open until Monday 14 May 2012. The material for the Contest is available on the websites www.ypef.gr and www.parnitha.eu.
The teams have to answer to 50 multiple choice questions, which are selected by the International YPEF Commisison. The duration of the contest is 2 hours. Each team takes 1 point for each correct answer and there is no negative rating.
The results will be announced on Friday 25 May 2012 on the website www.parnitha.eu. The winning team will take place to the International Ypef Contest that will take place in Estonia.
The detailed Regulation for the Greek Contest can be found on www.parnitha.eu.

•  National stage in Hungary.

The national final in Hungary was held on Thursday, the 26th of April. The interest was very high. In the first round of the second edition of the YPEF national stage contest in Hungary

took part 46 schools, approximately 100 teams. The organizers of the race in Hungary are  the National Forestry Association and the Kitaibel Paul High School Biology, Environmental Studies .

Almost all regions of the country known as vocational schools and secondary schools students, nearly 300 people, took place with the participation of the first round. Students of European forests in general and the country-specific issues created by exercise test, and the Hungarian forests on writing an essay measured their knowledge.

In a close race results, only a few points of difference to the decision in favor of the first 11 teams who have penetrated the national final. In the finals of the competition tasks will have to be solved only in English. English proficiency is required for stable, even if only as because it is the best team to represent our country in the international finals with a place in Estonia in 2012.

The competition is designed to high school students learn about the countries that joined the European and national forests, forestry activities, the role of forests and the natural environment, occurring in the forests of major plant and animal species. Young people are thus closer to the understanding of the principles of sustainability, can experience that not only conserve natural resources in their environment, but also in the European region is also extremely important task of the people living there.

A detailed description of the domestic competition and the race organizers website International website at: www.ypef.eu; www.oee.hu .

•  National stage in Latvia.

Participants - 116 schools, 6800 pupils. The National  competition is held in two stages – first one is opened for all shools and during this stage the participants are collecting points for certain activities. They must: 1) plant the forest; 2) make the bird-house; 3) pick- up the litter in the forest; 4) do the forest lesson outside the school integrating the school curriculum; 5) go to guided forest excursion with forest professional. At the end, the best 9 schools from Latvia who have collected the biggest number of points are chosen to participate in second stage/final – to complete the knowledge test about Europe’s Forests. The Final of the National stage is held on the 16th of  April, 2012.As a result the best team is chosen to participate in international stage in Estonia.

•  National stage in Lithuania.

The National Stage Contest took place on 10th of May at Aleksandras Stulginskis University Forestry and Ecology Faculty. 18 pupils from various parts of Lithuania made 6 teams and took part in the Contest. Firstly teams represented them selves, theirs activities, daily life and local nature. Members of Contest Commission were impressed to see how creative friends of forest are. During the next part of the Contest participants were showing their knowledge by holding a test. To summarize the event it is worth to mention that all of the participants were great and charming. Maybe some of them just missed some luck.

1. Registration of the participants: 1st  of March, 2012.

2. Learning the material and preparation for the presentations: 1st of March - 10th  of May, 2012.

3. National Stage Contest at Aleksandras Stulginskis University:10th of May,2012. 

•  National stage in Poland.

On Wednesday the 18th of April took place in Poland the elimination of the second edition of the YPEF contest. The competition was attended by nearly 2500 teams from more than 500 middle schools and high schools. Qualifying took place in about 250 schools YPEF. Currently the results are being send to the YPEF  National Contest Commission. The National final will take place on 24th of May, in Warsaw University of Life Sciences. 

2º Edition of YPEF Contest
National Stage

On April 20^th was held the national stage of the 2º Edition of YPEF Contest, with the participation of near 200 pupils from 22 secondary and professional schools from Aveiro, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Faro, Leiria, Lisboa, Portalegre, Porto, Santarém e Viseu districts.
Congratulations to all the 71 teams from:
•    Agrupamento de Escolas da Guia de Pombal - Escola Tecnológica Artística e Profissional de Pombal;
•    Agrupamento de Escolas de Lagares-Felgueiras - Escola Básica e Secundária de Felgueiras;
•    Agrupamento de Escolas do Concelho de Ferreira do Zêzere - Escola EB 2,3 S Pedro Ferreiro de Ferreira do Zêzere;
•    Agrupamento de Escolas Infante D. Henrique - Escola Secundária Infante D. Henrique do Porto;
•    Escola Profissional Agrícola Fernando Barros Leal de Torres Vedras;
•    Escola Profissional Agrícola Quinta da Lageosa de Belmonte;
•    Escola Profissional de Aveiro;
•    Escola Profissional de Ciências Geográficas de Lisboa;
•    Escola Secundária da Gafanha da Nazaré de Ílhavo;
•    Escola Secundária da Lousã;
•    Escola Secundária de Carvalhos de Vila Nova de Gaia;
•    Escola Secundária de D. Dinis de Lisboa;
•    Escola Secundária de Loulé;
•    Escola Secundária de Penafiel;
•    Escola Secundária de São Lourenço de Portalegre;
•    Escola Secundária Dr. Ginestal Machado de Santarém;
•    Escola Secundária Ferreira de Castro de Oliveira de Azeméis;
•    Escola Secundária Joaquim Araújo de Penafiel;
•    Escola Tecnológica e Profissional da Zona do Pinhal de Pedrogão Grande;
•    Instituto Vaz Serra da Sertã;
•    Petroensino - Ensino e Formação Profissional, Lda. – Escola Tecnológica e Profissional da Zona do Pinhal de Pedrogão Grande;
•    Profiacademus - Escola Profissional de Santa Comba Dão.
Due to a tie between two teams from Agrupamento de Escolas da Guia and Escola Secundária da Lousã, it will be held a run-off test on May 18^th.

Only one team will be the winner and represent Portugal on the European Stage in Estonia.

We will soon know them, stay tuned!
Good luck to the teams!   

In Slovenia YPEF participants got through the run-off stage of the national competition. There have been 8 teams competing.

All of them get the chance in the national finals on the 17^th of May.

Rules for the National Stage:

    The International Contest „Young People in European Forests” YPEF 2011/2012 is targeted at young people from European countries. Its purpose is to promote the biodiversity of European nature, the sustainable forestry, and above all knowledge of the forests of Europe, with particular reference to Nature 2000 sites. The organization of the competition is based on the partnership between institutions responsible for forestry and non-governmental organizations dealing with forestry education in the countries participating in the competition. In Slovenia coordinators of this competition are The Scout Association of Slovenia and Slovenian Forestry Institute.

The contestants

1.    The participants of the contest in Slovenia are pupils of secondary schools, who at the beginning of the 2011/2012 school year were between the age of 14 and 18 years old.
2.    Participants take part in the competition in teams of three (one group per school). At least one team member must be good in English. Team member should be from different grades.
3.    The National Stage is composed of two parts – regional and national.

Subject range of the competition

3.    The topics include knowledge in the fields of nature, geography, nature conservation and forest sciences in the forests of Europe. The required subject range of the competition is to be found on the official internet page (www.ypef.eu).
4.    Each team answers the same list of questions, randomly selected according to the procedure laid down in the international regulations of YPEF, among the sets of questions prepared by the organizers from different countries and the YPEF International Contest Commission.
5.    The competition questions are prepared in English.
6.    Contestants prepare for the competition on the basis of materials in English posted on the website www.ypef.eu.

Competition process

7.    The First stage (Regional) of the National Stage takes place in secondary schools, which declare their taking part before the 1st of March 2011. There are 158 secondary schools in 12 regions. They can do this by sending their school application forms (one group of three pupils per school!) by e-mail at andrej.verlic@gozdis.s. The form must be signed by the headmaster (director) of the school and the coordinating teacher. Participation in the contest is voluntary. 
8.    While preparing for the contest, the students will familiarize with the YPEF materials, which will be posted on www.ypef.eu.
9.    The First stage (Regional) of the National Stage will be held on the 20st of April 2012, in all schools that have confirmed their participation. Directly before this date, schools will receive a list of question sets prepared by the YPEF International Contest Commission.
10.    In each school, a teacher will be appointed to coordinate the competition.
11.    Each school participating in the contest is required to carry out the contest on the 20st of April 2012, no later than by 18:00.
12.    The competition questions are constructed in the form of a test. For every question you get 0 or 1 point. The answer can be selected only once, no corrections or crossing out is permitted.
13.     After the test is completed, the coordinators in the schools will receive worksheet with the answers via e-mail. The tests should be checked according to this worksheet. The coordinator has to write a report on the ranking of the best results. All of this must be handed in before the end of April 2012 to the relevant member of contest commission. Tests and reports are reviewed by the National Contest Commission.
14.    The National Contest Commission is appointed by the Slovenian Scout Association and Slovenian Forestry Institute.
15.    The winning teams from regions – regional team scoring highest points, will do another test - National stage, on the 14st of May 2012. The procedure is the same as for the first – Regional stage. The results and reports must be handed in before the 18th of May 2012.
16.    The YPEF National Contest Commission is to check the tests and reports and provide a list of the results and the winning group. If there will be more than one group with the highest score, National Contest Commission will compare the sum of scores from the both national stages to get a single winning group with the highest combined score. If there still will be no unique winning team, these groups will be asked to prepare presentation about the competition topic and present them by the end of May 2012 at Slovenian Forestry Institute.
17.    The YPEF National Contest Commission will evaluate the presentations and declare the winning team.

Awards

19.    The main prize of the national stage of the International Contest "Young People in European Forests" YPEF 2011/2012 is the participation in the European stage of the contest. YPEF National Contest Commission will provide symbolic presents for the best Regional groups.
20.    The YPEF International Contest Commission YPEF determines how many teams from different countries will participate in the European Stage YPEF 2011/2012, which will be held in September 2012, based on the results of the National Stages.

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