Ing. Mirte Kruit
Organisation
Large Herbivore NetworkField of expertise
Forest and nature conservation, ecology, mammalsCountries
About
As a freshly graduate of Forest and Nature Conservation I had a few keywords in my mind that should be related to the job I was looking for; international, active nature conservation, ecosystems on landscape scale, carnivores, large herbivores and human dimensions. Working on the large herbivore species database of the LHF might give me the key to open the door that will lead me to an interesting future. During my studies in the Netherlands, with internships in Poland I learned much about large scale ecosystems, nature reserve management and how to implement nature conservation by an practical approach.
As a young child I was already fascinated by nature and actively involved as a volunteer of landscape management/ up keeping at my home province Zeeland. Later as a teenager I became fascinated by wolves and their hunted past. I actually found out about the importance of such species within the ecosystems. Herbivores play a huge role in the development of ecosystems. Carnivores need herbivores as food, and they have a big influence on e.g. the health of ecosystems as well. It is very difficult to restore the completeness of ecosystems when key species are missing, hence we have to do all we can to conserve and to restore what we have. A first step is made by providing interesting and important information with our large herbivore species database. A second step will be the open source discussion between experts to create active conservation plan, leading towards concrete and practical projects to find funds for.