Ben Sonneveld (1957) is the deputy director of the Amsterdam Centre for World Food Studies (ACWFS) of the VU University of Amsterdam. He holds an M.Sc. from Wageningen University, Netherlands, with majors in tropical crop science, soil science and plant physiology. He worked from 1985 to 1987 in Indonesia for the International Institute for Land Reclamation and Improvement and from 1987 to 1992 for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in land and water development projects in Latin America. In 1992, he joined the VU University where he has been involved in food security projects in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Benin, Jordan River Basin, Palestinian Territories and Senegal. For his Ph.D., he received the AIID/World Bank Thesis Award. Sonneveld publishes in leading natural resource management and ecological economic journals. A central topic of his research is the modelling of the impact of land and water degradation on the agricultural production and eco-services.