Meet the Advisory Board: Tibor Hartel

The PLUS Change Project has welcomed its fourth Advisory Board member, Tibor Hartel, an ecologist specialised in human-nature connections.

Tell us about yourself!

My name is Tibor Hartel, I am Associate Professor at Babes-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering. My background is population, community, landscape ecology and conservation biology. In the past decade I increasingly broadened my areas of interest towards the human dimensions of large carnivore conservation, urban green systems and ancient land use systems (wood-pastures).

How does your work correspond with PLUS Change?

I feel I can contribute to areas where knowledge types (traditional, modern) about nature and its management (land use) matters, where potential conflicts should be navigated or even solutioned, where mismatches exist between knowledge and aspirations related to land use (see our recent paper in TREE, The Traditional Ecological Knowledge conundrum) and where it is about (re)diversifying human-nature connections for protecting nature in production systems.

Why were you interested in working with this project?

First, because I show great respect towards Julia’s work, and with this I hoped to be closer to what she is doing to learn more about the social dimensions of environmental change and transdisciplinary approaches. Second and equally important, some of the key aspects targeted by PLUS Change are highly relevant for my study systems in Romania, hence it is a great opportunity for me to learn and gain inspirations. Also, I hope I can help this great project.

What are you looking forward to in the coming years?

I envision the creation of an excellence centre in ecology and social aspects of ecosystem change in Romania. For this I feel PLUS Change is a great source of inspiration as well as an unique potential of networking.