Hans Joosten (1955) studied biology and worked as university researcher and policy officer (State Forestry Service, Ministry of Agriculture) in the Netherlands. Since 1996 he leads the Department of Peatland Studies and Palaeoecology of Greifswald University (Germany), partner in the Greifswald Mire Centre. Key research topic of his group is paludiculture, on which he edited – together with Wendelin Wichtmann and Christian Schröder- the first handbook in 2016.
Since 2000 Hans Joosten is Secretary-General of the International Mire Conservation Group, for which he produced the books ‘Wise use of mires and peatlands’ (2002, with Donal Clarke of International Peat Society) and ‘Mires and peatlands of Europe’ (2017, with Franziska Tanneberger and Asbjørn Moen). Since 2009 he has been intensively involved in UNFCCC negotiations and IPCC guidance development, especially with respect to accounting for emissions from organic soils, and in FAO in advancing climate-responsible peatland management.
In 2010 Hans Joosten received an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Batumi for his efforts in studying and protecting the mires of Colchis (Georgia). In 2013 he was awarded the European CULTURA Prize for Sustainable Land Use, and the Research Award Sustainability of the German Federal Government.