Nico Beunders

“As a senior lecturer and consultant in sustainable tourism I have dedicated most of my professional career in Europe and Africa to cooperation with protected areas and to rural community development in order to strengthen the conservation economy. Links with agriculture; sustainable landscapes and integrated approaches to link conservation with community development and wider sustainability issues are obvious. I have been working in Ghana and Rwanda from 2009; off late in formal and informal TVET. Capacity building of institutions, professionals and (disadvantaged) youth. Eurosite seems to be the right platform to work on developing know-how and skills to create synergy between combatting climate change, conservation and sustainable rural development.” 

Interests:

*capacity building- and training approaches for institutions, conservation managers and workers as well as rural communities

* tourism strategies as part of management plans of protected areas

* maximizing synergy between community-/rural development and conservation

*community resource management

* visitor management

*cross-continental dimension of conservation

*stakeholder involvement and commitment