Go4BioDiv

• Name: Best, Jassa Kristine
• Nationality: Germany
• Country of Residence: Germany
• Town: Fischbachtal
• E-Mail: not public
• Profession: intern/between school and university
• Educational Background:
  I finished school last year in June with my final school-leaving-examination. Then I lived for four months in Great Britain and did an internship at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in London. Now I'm active in the compaign for biodiversity in Frankfurt and would like to study biology, landscape ecology&nature conservation or biodiversity&ecology in October 08.
• Where I live and how I view my environment:
  I live in a small village near Darmstadt called Niedernhausen-Fischbachtal for now almost 20 years. And I like it, especially because of close nature that I have around me. Already in 5 minutes walking I'm in the forest of Odenwald, there are fields and a pretty castle with a bulwark on top of a hill next to my village. Additionally a small nice river flows along our garden, where I liked to play when I was younger.
• Biodiversity means to me personally:
  In general biodiversity means the diversity of life on earth. It refers to nature, the plants and animals as well as their environment, the eco-systems which developed during more than hundred million of years. Personally I understand biodiversity as a very important aspect of our life. As soon as I go outside in nature I enjoy all the different plants and animals living around me and the thought of conservation appears in my head. I’m fascinated by the fact that we know only a very small parts of the world’s biodiversity and I always wonder how many different plant and animal species are still to be discovered.
• My Symbol of biodiversity:
  an eco-system of any kind, like a forest or a lake, because it contains more biodiversity than a single plant or animal.
• My motivation for participating:
  I’ll learn more about biodiversity in my country (Germany) and the foreign biodiversity in the countries of all participants. I'll hopefully get a very good first idea how to approach such a subject like biodiversity and I'm generally very interested in other countries' cultures and nature environments. Finally because it is my main objective in life to do something for nature and I'd like to care about it and know that we have to react right now.
• How did I show I am ready to "Go 4 BioDiv":
  In 2007 I did an internship at the Kew Gardens in London where I worked in a glasshouse looking mainly after tropical plant families (Bromeliaceae, Araceae, Orchidaceae, Carnivorous plants). I also volunteered in its Herbarium where I dealt with very diverse specimens from all over the world identifying, scanning or labeling them. For two months I do an internship at the university in Frankfurt, where I’m involved in the campaign "Biodiversitätsregion Frankfurt/ Rhein-Main" that was established in order to inform and educate the public of important themes like biodiversity and sustainability.
• My message to other participants:
  "Let’s join and be creative, together we'll be successful!" I'm looking forward to meeting with you and exchange our experience concerning biodiversity and many other things!