Gert Van Hecken hoofddocent

About me Gert Van Hecken

​Short Bio​ċċċċċċċ

I am associate professor at the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp, and associate researcher at  (), Nicaragua. I hold a PhD in Development Studies (University of Antwerp), and have an academic background in Environmental Sciences and Economics.

My work engages with struggles for environmental, climate, and reparative justice, and develops critical perspectives on (green) colonialism, global systems of exploitation, and uneven ecological exchange. A central focus is on the diverse ways in which communities and social movements resist these dynamics and (re)imagine more just and sustainable futures. Over the past fifteen years, I have collaborated closely with grassroots organizations, academic institutions, and farmer and feminist movements in Central and South America, with particular emphasis on Nicaragua. These collaborations continue today through long-term institutional partnerships with universities in , , and .

Alongside this, I am also engaged in broader collective initiatives. I am a Board Member of , and active in the inter-university network for Palestine, where I work with students and staff to challenge the complicity of universities and to build forms of solidarity across movements.

 

Research interests

My research is guided by questions of solidarity, social-environmental justice, and the many forms of resistance that emerge in the face of exploitation and ecological destruction. I study how communities and movements challenge global systems of inequality and how they (re)imagine and defend alternative social-ecological futures.

My work focuses on struggles for justice in the context of climate change and biodiversity policies, especially around carbon markets, biodiversity offsets, payments for ecosystem services (PES), and green finance. I critically engage with green colonialism, neoliberal environmentalism, and uneven ecological exchange between North and South. A newer strand of my research explores green colonialism in Palestine, examining how environmental narratives are mobilized in the service of domination, while also tracing practices of resistance and solidarity that counter them.

More broadly, I am interested in the politics of knowledge in environmental discourses and how dominant framings of “sustainability” often marginalize alternative perspectives. My research connects with debates on post-development, degrowth, and other paradigms that open space for more just and democratic transformations.

Much of this work has been grounded in long-term collaborations with grassroots and academic partners in Central and South America, especially Nicaragua, and increasingly aims to bring these situated struggles into dialogue with European policy debates and global conjunctures. My approach is interdisciplinary, drawing from political ecology, critical geography, social ecology, environmental humanities, and ecological economics, and oriented toward participatory and transformative methodologies (see for example a ). Ultimately, my research seeks to bridge academic knowledge with collective practices of resistance and change.

​Here you can find an overview of the research projects I am currently involved in.


Teaching

At the IOB I teach the following courses:

At the University of Antwerp level I coordinate the yearly Debating Development series, which creates space for critical dialogue on urgent global challenges.

I am also involved as a lecturer in some of the  in Latin America.


Key publications

I have published several book chapters, opinion pieces, policy briefs, and research articles in a diversity of outlets (for a full overview see my publication profile on  or ).​

Some contributions to opinion pieces / public debate include:

In international media outlets:

  • "", in The New Humanitarian, 12 January 2026.
  • "", in: Transnational Institute (TNI) Palestine Liberation Series, 28 March 2025. 
    • See also translations in , , and ​
    • See videos on the and on

                              Fourate Chahal El Rekaby     © TNI

  • "", in: VRT NWS, 15 January 2025. (Longer version and link to the )
  • "", in: European Association for Development Institutes (EADI) blog, 22 November 2024.
  • "", in: VRT NWS, 4 November 2024. (; Version )
  • "", in: IOB Blog, 18 January 2024.
  • "", in: American Evaluation Association 365 Blog, 7 October 2023.
  • "", in: Green European Journal, 30 December 2021   (also available in and , with generous support of , and the collective).
  • "", in: Beyond Development, 17 August 2020.
  • "", in: Uneven Earth, 7 May 2020  (also available in in the journal Ecología Política).​
  • "", in: The Conversation, 10 December 2019  (also available in ,  and ).​ċ

In Belgian/Dutch media outlets:

  • "", in Knack, 25 February 2026.
  • "", in De Wereld Morgen, 6 February 2026.
  • "", in De Wereld Morgen, 1 December 2025.
  • "", in Knack, 14 November 2025.
  • "", in De Morgen, 22 October 2025.
  • "", in De Morgen, 19 September 2025.
  • "", in Mo*, 29 August 2025.
  • "", in One World, 27 August 2025.
  • "​", in Knack, 17 August 2025.
  • "", in De Standaard, 14 July 2025.
  • "", in De Morgen, 11 June 2025.
  • "", in De Standaard, 30 May 2025.
  • "", in: De Standaard, 9 May 2025.
  • "", in MO*, 6 March 2025.
  • "", in: Knack, 24 January 2025. (Also available )
  • "", in: VRT NWS, 15 January 2025. (Also available )
  • "", in: De Standaard, 22 November 2024.
  • "", in: VRT NWS, 4 November 2024.
  • "", in: Knack, 31 October 2024. (Also available )
  • "​", in: Knack, 25 September 2024.
  • "​ċ", in: Knack, 21 June 2024.
  • "", in: De Wereld Morgen, 7 June 2024.
  • "", in: Knack, 17 May 2024.
  • "", in: De Standaard, 19 February 2024.
  • "", in: De Morgen, 1 February 2024.
  • "", in: De Standaard, 29 December 2023.
  • ​", in: Knack, 13 December 2023.
  • "", in: Dwars, 2 December 2023.
  • "", in: De Morgen, 14 October 2022.
  • "", in: De Standaard, 7 June 2022.

  • "", by Thomas Oudman in De Correspondent, 9 May 2022.
  • "", in: Mo*, 21 March 2022.
  • "”, in: Mo*, 6 May 2020.
  • ​"", in: De Morgen, 21 December 2019.
  • "", in: Mo*, 21 October 2015  (also available in ).


Some academic publications Գܻ:​

  • Kolinjivadi, V., G. Van Hecken, P. Merlet (2023). . Global Environmental Change 83: 102758.
  • Kolinjivadi, V., J.F. Bissonnette, D. Leguizamon Alejo, L. Valencia, G. Van Hecken (2023) . Journal of Political Ecology 30(1): 497-523.
  • Vela Almeida, D., V. Kolinjivadi, T. Ferrando, B. Roy, H. Herrera, M. Vecchione Gonçalves, G. Van Hecken (2023) . Political Geography 105: 1-10.
  • Van Hecken, G., V. Kolinjivadi, F. Huybrechs, J. Bastiaensen, P. Merlet (2021) . Tropical Conservation Science 14: 1-8.
  • Shapiro-Garza, E., V. Kolinjivadi, G. Van Hecken, C. Windey, J. Casolo (2021) . In Himley, M., Havice, E., Valdivia, G. (Eds) The Routledge Handbook of Critical Resource Geography (pp 236-247). London: Routledge.
  • Shapiro-Garza, E., P. McElwee, G. Van Hecken, E. Corbera (2020) . Development and Change 51(1): 3-25.
  • Corbera, E., S. Costedoat, D. Ezzine-de-Blas, G. Van Hecken (2020) . Development and Change 51(1): 167-195.​
  • Huybrechs, F., J. Bastiaensen, G. Van Hecken (2019) . Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 41: 85-92.
  • Kolinjivadi, V., G. Van Hecken, D. Vela Almeida, J. Dupras, N. Kosoy (2019) . Progress in Human Geography 43(1): 3–25.
  • Van Hecken, G., P. Merlet, M. Lindtner and J. Bastiaensen (2019) . Ecological Economics 156: 519-529.
  • Merlet, P., G. Van Hecken and R. Rodriguez-Fabilena (2018) . Ecosystem Services 34: 218-227.
  • Van Hecken, G., Kolinjivadi, V., Windey, C., McElwee, P., Shapiro-Garza, E., Huybrechs, F., Bastiaensen, J. (2018) . Ecological Economics 144: 314-318.
  • Pasgaard, M., G. Van Hecken, A. Ehammer, N. Strange (2017) . Geoforum 84: 354-367.
  • Kolinjivadi, V., G. Van Hecken, J.C. Rodríguez de Francisco, J. Pelenc and N. Kosoy (2017) . Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 26–27: 1–6.
  • Van Hecken, G., J. Bastiaensen and C. Windey (2015) . Ecological Economics 120: 117-125.
  • Van Hecken, G., J. Bastiaensen and F. Huybrechs (2015) , Geoforum 63: 55-66.
  • Muradian, R., M. Arsel, L. Pellegrini, F. Adaman, B. Aguilar, B. Agarwal, E. Corbera, D. Ezzine de Blas, J. Farley, G. Froger, E. Garcia-Frapolli, E. Gómez-Baggethun; J. Gowdy, N. Kosoy, J.F. Le Coq, P. Leroy, P. May, P. Méral, P. Mibielli, R. Norgaard, B. Ozkaynak, U. Pascual, W. Pengue, M. Perez, D. Pesche, R. Pirard, J. Ramos-Martin, L. Rival, F. Saenz, G. Van Hecken, A. Vatn, B. Vira and K. Urama (2013) , Conservation Letters 6(4): 274-279.
  • Van Hecken, G. and J. Bastiaensen (2010) , Environmental Science & Policy 13(8): 785-792.


A copy of my doctoral dissertation on critical institutional approaches to analyze the on-the-ground social and political effects of market-based conservation mechanisms can be .