Louise (Wieteke) Willemen has worked on ecosystem services and rural development issues since 2003. Her research primarily focusses on making quantitative spatial information on ecosystem services available to support multi-objective decision making in agricultural areas. Her current research includes RS-based ecosystem service mapping and monitoring, impact assessments of integrated restoration, and prioritization of investments in land degradation neutrality actions. She contributes to bridging science-policy through her roles as Coordinating Lead Author of the Land Degradation and Restoration assessment of IPBES, Board of the Executive Committee of Ecosystem Services Partnership (ESP, an international network aiming at linking ecosystem service science with practice to enhance communication, coordination and cooperation), and editorial work for several journals.

Louise Willemen has a PhD in spatial modelling from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and a MSc degree from the same university in Tropical Land Use studies (specialization in plant production systems and GIS). She has worked at several science and policy organizations including Bioversity International in Colombia, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Italy, Cornell University in the USA, and has collaborated with many on-the-ground partners.