Ignace Schops

Ashoka Fellow, Director of the NGO Regionaal Landschap Kempen en Maasland

Categories: Ashoka Fellows, Experts+Speakers

Ignace Schops is a Belgian environmentalist and expert in biodiversity and landscape design. He is Director of the Belgian NGO Regionaal Landschap Kempen en Maasland and from 2014 to 2021 was President of the largest network for natural heritage in Europe, the EUROPARC Federation, as well as the EU section of the Club of Rome.

Ignace has developed a bottom-up national park concept that supports the commercial exploitation of national parks. This concept is changing the economic perception of the region: away from industrial areas and towards economically viable, protected landscapes that are appealing to green tourism. Today, local companies are firmly anchored in landscape protection and the concept is being scaled internationally.

He has been recognized internationally for piloting the first citizen movement in Europe to claim the custody of a large natural reserve into the first national park of Belgium, the Hoge Kempen National Park.

Learn more about his fellowship here: https://www.ashoka.org/es-es/fellow/ignace-schops

Photo: © Luc Daelemans

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