Koen Arts is a Lecturer at the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He works on human dimensions of nature conservation, specifically human-environment interactions at a local and practical level. Topics of focus include:

• Local ecological knowledge and skill (in the context of livelihoods and recreation)
• Community-based conservation
• Human-wildlife interaction
• Human rewilding
• Outdoor relational learning and capacities for transformative change 

He has also worked on digital conservation and (political) decision-making in nature conservation. 

Koen usually adopts critical qualitative social science approaches, drawing from various (sub)disciplines such as political ecology, material anthropology, outdoor studies, eco-sociology, -psychology and -philosophy, and governance studies. He enjoys working in multidisciplinary settings, including cooperating with ecologists and conservation practitioners to further just and effective conservation. 

He has worked in various places around the world, including India, Scotland and Brazil. Koen has authored >30 professional publications and his work features in prominent journals in the field (see selected publications below). He has co-edited an Ambio Special Issue on Digital Conservation, and a Dutch book Rewilding in Nederland. He gives frequent presentations for peers, policy makers and practitioners at international venues, and has peer-reviewed >60 articles for >30 different scientific journals. 

He teaches in the BSc course Forest, Nature, Society (FNP-11806) and the MSc course Communities, Conservation and Development (FNP31306). In 2021 he set up the new WUR course Anthropology of basic nature skills: Combining theory and practice through relational learning (FNP51306). This course won the WUR Excellent Education Award in the category Special Courses in 2023. He supervises 5-10 BSc and MSc thesis students every year.

Koen is co-promotor of:

• Reineke van Tol's PhD project 'Wilding pedagogies: Exploring relational learning and inner transformation for youth’s being and becoming with(in) a liquid world'.
• Ravi van de Port's PhD project 'Exploring the social dimensions of rewilding and associated human-nature relations'.

He is also the chair of the Programme Committee for the BSc and MSc programmes Forest and Nature Conservation, the education coordinator for his chair group, as well as associate editor for the British Ecological Society's journal People and Nature.