Thomas van Elsen

Projects

• organic agriculture - development and improvement of consulting approaches for the integration of nature conservation targets on organic farms
  
• Social Services in Multifunctional Farms ("Social Farming")
  
• COST Action 866 - Green Care in Agriculture
  
• The integration of nature conservation into organic farming practice at the Hessian State Domain Frankenhausen as an example
  
• Biodiversity in the farmed landscape - establishment of a network of conservation areas for arable-landscape wildflowers in central Germany

Activity areas

• nature and landscape development on organic farms
  
• participatory educational projects on organic farms
  
• provision of impact and compensation and organic agriculture
  
• indicators in nature
  
• social and multifunctional agriculture
  
• vegetation of arable field plants in organic agriculture
  
• bio.-dynamic aspects in organic agriculture

Training / professional career

• since 2004 project manager at FiBL Deutschland e.V. location Witzenhausen
  
• 1997 - 2004 working in the department of farming and cropping of the university of Kassel in Witzenhausen; several projects focussing organic agriculture, landscape development and nature conservation
  
• 1995 - 1997 working for the "EU-Concerted Action The landscape and nature production capacity of organic / sustainable types of agriculture"
  
• since1994 lecturer for landscape ecology at the organic agriculture field of study; supervision of more than 50 diploma thesis
  
• 1994 doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) on the dynamic of arable field plants in the crop rotation
  
• 1987 - 1997 scientific assistant at the department of ecology and nature conservation of the faculty of agriculture of the University of Kassel in Witzenhausen; investigations about the renaturation of land, damaged by industrial impact; lecturer for plant sociology
  
• 1981 - 1987 studies of biology at the Technical University of Braunschweig and the University of Göttingen
  
• 1979 - 1981 community service in the field of environment protection at the local authority for garden and forest of the city of Wuppertal

Membership in advisory bodies / other activities

• founder and member of the managing board of PETRARCA (European Academy for Landscape Culture)