Matthijs G.C. Schouten B.Sc., M.Sc. D.Sc. (born 1952) studied biology and comparative religion at the University of Nijmegen and Celtic studies at the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
He has worked as lecturer at the University of Nijmegen and as ecological project leader for the Wildlife Service (Dublin). He was the leader of the international campaign for the conservation of Irish bogs. Since 1992 he is senior ecological officer at the National Forest Service of the Netherlands; since 1995 he also is a visiting professor of nature and landscape conservation at University College Cork and University College Galway (Ireland); in 1999 he furthermore accepted the chair of restoration ecology at Wageningen University (the Netherlands).
In 1990 he was awarded the International Award for Conservation Merit by the World wide Fund for Nature and in 1992 the National University of Ireland granted him a honorary doctorate.
He has published widely in the fields of ecology and nature philosophy. His latest book Spiegel van de natuur; het natuurbeeld in cultuurhistorisch perspectief (Nature’s mirror; the image of nature in a cultural-historical perspective) has formed the basis for the exhibition World Nature Art in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.
