Maarten Van Opstal

Maarten van Opstal holds a bachelor degree in Asian Languages and Cultures (Indology - Ghent University), a master and teacher degree in Comparative Science of Cultures (Ghent University) and a Master in Sustainable Development and Human Ecology (Vrije Universiteit Brussel). He is currently preparing a PhD thesis, jointly supervised by Vrije Universiteit Brussel (PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies – Public Health Department) and Université Libre de Bruxelles (PhD in Social and Political Sciences – Institut de Sociologie). Next to his work as a researcher, he is also active as a lecturer in Dutch as a second language (University of Antwerp) and as an Emergency Medical Technician (Dringende Geneeskundige Hulpverlening / hulpverlener-ambulancier 112).

Maarten Van Opstal’s main research interests relate to cultural aspects of sustainability (focus on cultural diversity and dynamics), bio-cultural diversity and human-environment interrelationships. Further research interests in a broader sense are social ecology, environmental anthropology, anthropology of development and political ecology.
His earlier research mainly focused on sustainable development, sustainability discourses on culture and diversity, trans-disciplinarity, worldviews and knowledge creation. Ongoing doctoral research concerns critical analysis of participatory and community-based conservation strategies in South Asia, community forestry, the environmental justice discourse, rights-based conservation approaches and related forest tenure reforms. The overall objective is to analyze how global development and conservation agendas are ‘localized’ and how on-the-ground implementation of national conservation and development policies impacts the human wellbeing of forest-dependent subaltern social groups. The UN Agenda 2030 - and it’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) - serves as a core agenda for in-depth evaluation of localization processes in international development and conservation efforts. 

Regional focus: The Indian subcontinent, case studies and ethnographic fieldwork on forest rights reforms in the tribal areas of South-Rajasthan, Mewar.