Luke Brander is an environmental economist with over 20 years experience in applied research. He obtained his Masters degree in Environmental and Resource Economics at University College London (1997-98) and his doctoral degree from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2011.
Luke is currently working as a freelance environmental economist based in Amsterdam. He holds a part-time positions part-time positions as a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Physical Geography and Landscape Ecology, Leibniz Universität Hannover; a Guest Researcher at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; and a Short Term Consultant at the World Bank supporting the Global Program on Nature-based Solutions for Climate Resilience.
Luke’s main research interests are in the design of economic instruments to control environmental problems and the valuation of natural resources and environmental impacts. He has worked on the valuation of wetlands, forests, grasslands, mangroves, coral reefs and urban open space using primary valuation methods and through meta-analyses of the ecosystem valuation literature.
On-going projects include the valuation of ecosystem services provided by the deep sea for the International Seabed Authority (ISA); the valuation of ecosystem services provided by vultures in Southern Africa for Birdlife International; and the development of the Ecosystem Services Valuation Database (ESVD) jointly with the Foundation for Sustainable Development (FSD).
Luke is an experienced teacher of environmental economics and has given university courses at Masters level, tailored workshops to policy makers and practitioners, and supervises PhD research.