Olivier Hamerlynck

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older of a Medical Doctor degree (ex-Médecins sans Frontières during armed conflict in Somalia and Afghanistan in the 1980s) and a PhD in Marine Biology (coastal fish and invertebrates affected by infrastructural works) Olivier Hamerlynck is an independent consultant interested in the conservation-development nexus from an ecosystem perspective, looking at ways and means to improve livelihoods of vulnerable people while maintaining and restoring biodiversity and ecosystem service delivery, mainly in African coastal, wetland and forest ecosystems.

Assignments with IUCN, UNEP, UNESCO, GEF, Ramsar, NGOs, private sector (oil and gas) with an emphasis on field-based technical support, project development, policy advice, capacity-building and transdisciplinary research.

Olivier Hamerlynck co-constructs knowledge with user communities in the Western Indian Ocean. In Belgium he was teaching Tropical Fisheries Ecology. Currently also Research Affiliate of the Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique, he has published over 100 scientific papers (cited over 3500 times), mainly on fisheries-dependent livelihoods.