Naturalist and ESIA, biodiversity and conservation specialist. I am academic biologist by training, with more than 30 years of professional experience in Suriname in different capacities, always in relation to biodiversity and environment. I worked for the University of Suriname for some 10 years in the 1990s as invertebrates collection curator, lecturer and researcher, during which I focused first on stingless bee collecting and taxonomy, later more on bee ecology, and more broadly on the impact of mining and forestry on biodiversity. During the early 2000s I became Research Director at STINASU, a governmental foundation involved in nature conservation; my focus at the time was managing marine turtle monitoring, and developing a research department within STINASU that e.g. set up and ran a research station and research and monitoring program at Brownsberg Nature Park. From late 2004 onward, I have been operating as environmental consultant in Suriname, from 2005 till present under the umbrella of ESS, of which I am currently the General Director or CEO. Within ESS I function thematically as senior expert in the field of environmental impact assessment, biodiversity and conservation. I have been / am involved in some 60 consultancy projects, and have led / lead many complex jobs involving multidisciplinary teams. A notable recent achievement is the development, editing and in part writing of the book “Natural History and Ecology of Suriname”, published in 2018, which serves as a unique reference work on Suriname’s biodiversity and more.