I grew up in a village surrounded by big cities and I loved every little bit of nature I could get my hands on. My sense of sustainability and feeling for nature has been rooted by my parents and when I was 10 years old I already knew I wanted to work for Greenpeace. Not surprisingly I choose to study Environmental Science as my Bachelor degree. I wanted to learn more about climate change and sustainability, mainly so I could help to make the world a better place. During these years I went on an exchange in Melbourne after which I travelled Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. During these travels I saw such beautiful nature, that, in many cases, needed protection from humans. However, I also met many people from a lot of different cultures, with so many different views on life and I felt my sense of direction change. Before this experience my motivation was mainly to improve nature conservation. After this I became aware of the broad role of people and their different perspectives on nature, which seems to be rooted in culture. I started the internationally focussed Master’s degree Forest and Nature Conservation in Wageningen. My thesis research was about the effects of diet and parasites on body conditions of large herbivores in South Africa. I also did a study on the harvesting of trees for resin in the Philippines. Even though Africa got my heart, the research in the Philippines was more up my alley: it involved local communities. Our research positively changed the future of the local people ánd nature! Even though this was just one small step towards a sustainable planet, many small steps will make the world a better place and I wish to continue helping this process as much as I can.