Ms. Hanneke Van Lavieren
Programme Officer, Coastal Ecosystems

Contact: Hanneke.VanLanvieren [at] unu.edu

Ms. Hanneke Van Lavieren, from the Netherlands, was born in Zambia and has spent most of her life in Africa and Asia. She completed her masters degree in Marine Biology and Ecology in 1997 at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Her research focused on the relationship between the structural complexity of corals and associated reef fish communities and the impact of small-scale fisheries in the Spermonde Archipelago, Sulawesi, Indonesia. She began her career as a Fisheries Biologist for the Netherlands Institute for Fisheries Research where she studied catch composition and population dynamics of target and non-target fish species in the Dutch beam trawl fishery and alternative fishing methods to reduce by-catch. Longing to return to the tropics, she took up a position as (coastal/marine) Technical Advisor for a conservation project in the Philippines for the Netherlands Development Agency in 1999. Here she worked closely with local communities, conducted extensive coastal monitoring and training activities, and developed an integrated coastal management plan. In 2001, she moved to Kenya to join the United Nations Environment Programme, Regional Seas Programme, where she dealt with issues such as small islands, MPAs, coastal biodiversity, cetacean management, mangroves, climate change and marine invasive species within 18 regional programmes. Since September 2006, she has been working for UNU-INWEH as the Coastal Ecosystems Programme Officer, and together with Dr. Peter Sale manages and coordinates coastal projects.