International Contest
"Young People in European Forests" YPEF 2011/2012
Rules of the Contest

Participants

1.  Participants of the Contest are pupils from European countries in the age group dependent on the country, not less than 13 and not more than 19 at the beginning of the school year 2011/2012.
2.  Participants take part in teams of two or three pupils. At least one person in a team is expected to speak English.  

Contest Commissions

3. Each organization participating in YPEF 2011/2012 contest may be represented in the YPEF International Contest Commission.
4. The YPEF International Contest Commission and YPEF National Contest Commissions will supervise the course of the contest directly.
5. The YPEF International Contest Commission may, if necessary, make changes in its composition.
6. YPEF National Contest Commissions may, if necessary, make changes in their compositions.
7. Winners of the YPEF 2010/2011 European (Final) stage may support the works of the YPEF International Contest Commission in the field of promotional and organizational activities concerning YPEF contest.  
8.Winners of the YPEF 2010/2011 national stages may support the works of the YPEF National Contest Commission of their own country in the field of promotional and organizational activities concerning YPEF contest’s national stages.

Goals

9.  Development of youths activity and integration by education are basic goals of  the YPEF2011/2012 contest.
10. The teams of pupils get the necessary knowledge by themselves (non-formal education), share this knowledge and present results to colleagues participating in the contest during preparations for national stages and during the European Final.  The course and organization of the workshop during the final stage should train the participants to cooperate and discuss the problems of nature and environment above state borders and barriers. 

Stage 1 - National

11.  The organizations represented in the YPEF International Commission from the given country will be jointly responsible for the organization of the National Stage Contest. 
12. Questions on the nature, forests and forestry of European countries (national sets), at least 19 countries and general issues of European nature, forests and forestry (European set) are prepared for the contest.
13.  Each team of participants in the National Stage Contest in one country shall answer the same list of questions.
14.  For each National Stage Contest the YPEF International Contest Commission will select the list of questions by a draw, separately two questions from each national set and twelve questions from the European set.
15.  The National Stage Contest will take place in the schools that will have responded to the call by the national YPEF Contest Commission. The participation in the Contest is voluntary and does not need to cover all the pupils from a school.
16.  The participants will study for the Contest from the websites, textbooks and other materials produced or accepted by the members of the YPEF International Commission and distributed in all the countries that participate in the Contest.
17.  The National Stage Contest will be held in each country on a convenient day between 1st February 2012 and 31st  May 2012. Directly before the contest day the list of questions will be sent to the schools in this country.
18.  The participating schools will send the results to the national YPEF Contest Commission. The results will be consolidated there and the national winner will be the team with the highest number of points. The YPEF International Contest Commission will establish the numbers of teams that participate in the European Stage Contest basing on results from the given countries.
19.  In case it was necessary, a run-off contest may be organized to select the winning team of a national stage. YPEF National Contest Commission will appoint the place of a run-off. The list of questions for the run-off will be selected in analogous draw from the sets sent before.
20.  The detailed rules of the National Stage Contests will be established by the YPEF National Contest Commissions.
21.  The International Contest Commission may accept national forest contest organized in a different way as an YPEF national stage. In such case it will be accompanied by adding YPEF questions to the local contest.

Stage 2 – European Final

22.  The teams participating in the European Final Stage Contest are expected to present the knowledge and promotion of the nature of their own countries. 
22.  The teams of pupils from all the countries meet in the host country. The European Stage consists of two parts. One part is the test organized by the International Contest Commission with the list of questions selected in the same way as in the article 14. The second part involves the presentation of the nature, forests and forestry of participants’ own country during the YPEF workshop. The presentation is evaluated in secret ballots by both: the YPEF International Contest Commission and participants of the European final stage.
23.  The winner of the YPEF2011/2012 International Contest is the team which gets the highest total score from the test and from the presentation.      
24.  In case two or more teams get the same total number of points the score from the presentation shall be decisive.
25.  The official language of the European Stage Contest is English.
26.  The host country for YPEF 2011/2012 is Estonia.

Support

27. National Stages may be supported (in financial or participation form) by other institutions from a given country.
28. European Final Stage organized by  Estonian Society of Foresters may be financed from a grant by the European fund Action 4.1 of the Youth in Action Programme.