“I am always bothered by the Western arrogance, by its assurance that it knows all the answers and can quite readily fix everything so that the tropical peoples can live happily ever after, if only they would listen”.

(Marston Bates, 1953)

My main research interests are environment, development and conservation.

In many places around the world rapid development is occuring in areas of high biological diversity. Many people in the 'developed' world are quick to point fingers and blame these countries or their people when biodiversity is damaged or in danger as a result of developmental activities...

Yet, one can not deny these countries or the people the right to develop. It is important to stress that they often highly depend on their natural environment...

In my opinion, the 'developed countries' (including their scientists, politicians and citizens) have a moral obligation and duty to help these countries in a just manner to develop in a socially and ecologically sustainable way.

So how can one strike the balance between development, environment, biodiversity conservation and sustainability?

That is what I want to work on...There exists no one strategy that can work everywhere, it is most likely that no one strategy can work on its own at any given site and that it is a matter of fitting the right combination of strategies to the conditions at a given situation. No available blueprint exists (nor is it necessarily desirable) and it is mandatory to recognise each case as needing specific objectives and operational principles specifically developed for the needs of the case in question.

More recently I have become interested in the relations between environment and law, finance, business and insurance in the wake of our changing climate and the role these play in developing countries.