Marc Stalmans

Marc Stalmans "was born and grew up in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He left in 1974 at the age of 15 to complete high school in Belgium. He studied Agricultural Engineering, specializing in Forestry & Limnology. This was followed by a study in Tropical Animal Production & Health.

"Marc started working in 1984 as research officer in a Protected Area in South Africa and completed a MSc in Botany. In 1990 he moved to the adjoining province where he became responsible for the ecological section of the local Parks Board. He completed a PhD in landscape ecology on the relationships between vegetation, fire and wild ungulates in the Barberton Mountainland. He has been consulting as an independent ecologist since 2001.

"He has experience of conservation research, planning, management and development in the public, parastatal and private sector. He has been involved in projects in African countries (Angola, Cameroon, Gabon, Moçambique, Morocco, South Africa, Togo, Zambia & Zimbabwe), the Middle East (UAE & Qatar) and the Far East (China). These projects include conservation and management planning for national parks and other protected areas, Transfrontier Conservation planning, eco-tourism development plans (focusing on zonation and site selection), wildlife censuses, monitoring, fire management, landscape and vegetation mapping. One of his on-going responsibilities is as Environmental Control Officer liaising between the Kruger National Park and a private tourism operator on a 15,000ha concession in the Park (regular environmental audits and EMP’s for new developments and activities). Recently, he has been very involved in the theoretical and practical development of biodiversity offsets in the Business & Biodiversity Offset Program.

"Marc speaks English, French, Dutch and Afrikaans and has limited knowledge of Portuguese and German. He is based in South Africa. "

• Independent Expert Panel, IUCN-Holcim