Jan van der Ploeg

Jan van der Ploeg is an environmental anthropologist working on community-based conservation, environmental crime and ecological restoration. Over the past 20 years, he worked in insular Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and the Caribbean on the intersection of science, policy, and conservation. In 2003 he co-founded the Mabuwaya Foundation, an organization dedicated to the in-situ conservation of the critically endangered Philippine crocodile. In the Solomon Islands, Jan supported rural communities to create a network of locally managed marine areas. From 2020 to 2023, Jan served as director of STINAPA, the national parks authority on Bonaire. Jan holds a PhD degree from Leiden University and is currently leading a research group on inclusive conservation at the Van Hall University of Applied Sciences in Velp.