Bas Arts

Prof. dr. Bas Arts (1961) holds a Master in biology (majors in forest ecology and development studies, 1987) and a PhD in environmental sciences and public administration. His PhD is on the political influence of NGOs in global environmental governance (1998).

Currently, he is a personal chair in forest governance at the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy (FNP) group at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. His research and teaching focus on international forest, biodiversity and climate change governance, local natural resource management and their interconnections (local-global nexus, multi-level governance). His latest book publication is with Cambridge University Press (2021): Forest Governance: Hydra or Chloris? (cambridge.org).

Bas Arts was also Chief Scientist at PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, a research institute that advises the Dutch government on environmental policy (2018-2025). In that capacity, he was co-responsible for the quality of research and for knowledge production in PBL’s science-policy interface.

Within ABC Futures, Arts is promotor and supervisor of PhD candidate Astracia Warner, whose research is on one health approaches in local communities in Suriname.