Mathilde, Research Officer in the Field of Urban Parks

Mathilde Zenzius (Class of 2010) is currently a research officer at the Seine-Saint-Denis General Council, in the Directorate of Nature, Landscapes and Biodiversity, a department responsible for the development of the large urban parks of Seine-Saint-Denis, including the Georges Valbon Park (formerly Courneuve Park), where she has been working since her final internship.

In February 2010, she commenced her professional career with a first 6-month mission on the Poudrerie Forest Park as part of the Urban Parks service of the General Council. Her role was to support the transfer of management of this state-owned park from the Île-de-France Agency for Green Spaces to the General Council. This involved coordinating the multitude of stakeholders involved, identifying the issues associated with the park, and defining strategic perspectives (developing a method for collaborative project formulation for the park) for the next three years, which included synthesising existing work on the subject and identifying levers to address the identified constraints. Mathilde emphasised the importance of engaging all stakeholders, both external and internal, from the outset and throughout the process.

After this 6-month internship, she switched departments to focus on a mission related to securing European funding through the "General Studies" office of the Council. Specifically, her role was to present the Department's candidacy for the European co-financing programme "LIFE +" which each year selects exemplary projects related to the environment and biodiversity through a call for proposals. She had to familiarise herself with European standards in order to select a project that would fit the criteria (which spanned nearly a hundred pages!). It was decided to present part of the departmental project of Chemin des Parcs, a greenway project intended to ultimately connect all the parks in Seine-Saint-Denis. She redefined the project to give it greater scope, created technical and financial partnerships (with the Region and the Council of Architecture, Urbanism and Environment of Seine-Saint-Denis and the National Museum of Natural History), developed a timeline, drafted the proposal, and reviewed the English translation. She highlights the technical complexity at every stage of this lengthy process and the technical assistance provided by the consulting firm Enviropea (funded by the Ministry of Ecology), which offered a valuable external perspective to identify inconsistencies and refine the proposal's structure. The dossier was submitted last September, and Mathilde is still awaiting a response from the European Commission, anticipated for April. If approved, the project will commence in June for a duration of five years.

In the meantime, Mathilde is working on three missions: the launch of the Poudrerie project which she conceived herself during her 6-month internship. This involves supporting the managing service of the park in conducting studies to define the project and establishing consultations with all stakeholders. Her second mission is to contribute to the definition of tools aimed at improving the collaborative work of the various departments of the Council involved in urban ecology missions (e.g., water and sanitation, road management concerning noise pollution and air quality, etc.). Finally, she is responsible for exploring opportunities for developing her department's missions in terms of supporting local actors in establishing more ecological green spaces within the department. She is currently preparing for administrative competitions and hopes to soon secure a permanent position at the General Council.