'Although biodiversity is essential for keeping the planet hospitable to human life, it's declining at an alarming rate. Meanwhile it receives less attention than other crises like climate change. Biodiversity loss is driven by human activity and unsustainable, unequal economic growth. Unless we address these underlying societal issues, conservation efforts will fall short. That’s why the conservation sector is calling for  transformative change across society.

What drew me to this research opportunity was discovering how diverse entrepreneurship scholarship can be. It examines a wide range of actors, motivations, and approaches. Entrepreneurship seemed like a natural fit for driving the change conservation needs, but it's hardly talked about in either field. 
A paper by my supervisor, Dr. Joeri Sol, suggested that conservation would benefit from degrowth and must move beyond a focus on protected areas. This resonated with my background in convivial conservation and confirmed UvA’s Amsterdam Business School is a place where I can meaningfully explore conservation entrepreneurship and transformative change.

As people and organisations rally around the Global Biodiversity Framework  - a UN plan to reverse biodiversity loss - I aim to better support conservation entrepreneurs working to restore our relationship with nature. I plan to build links between entrepreneurship and the conservation sector, and I am actively looking for local conservation entrepreneurs to involve in my research!'