Natasha Hulst

Natasha Hulst is the Schumacher Center’s Program Director for European Land Commons

Natasha’s role is to support international and national collaboration for land commons. Raising awareness of Community Land Trusts as a proven vehicle to broaden access to land in a fair, place-based, democratic, and voluntary manner. Together with a group of organisations she recently founded the Dutch Land Trust Grond van Bestaan. In 2019 she was founding member of Drawdown Europe focusing on land-use in relation to natural climate solutions.

From 2004-2007 she was Project Manager of the Nature and Society Programme at the European Center for Nature Conservation (ECNC) and worked mainly in Central and South Eastern Europe. From 2007 to 2016 Hulst was Senior Sustainability Consultant and Unit Coordinator at CREM Working on Sustainability Consulting Agency and became an expert on the fields of natural capital and corporate social responsibility. At this time she discovered the Commons as a new way of thinking and a hopeful narrative for the future.

In 2016 Hulst was Programme Manager at the DOEN Foundation and oversaw the New Economy Programme which provided financial support for initiatives contributing towards fair and sustainable economic systems. She was responsible for grant making, monitoring, and evaluating the international and national initiatives funded by DOEN.

In 2018 Hulst began working for the Biomimicry Institute and focusing on building strategic partnerships and international outreach. She now splits her time between the Biomimicry Institute and the Schumacher Center. Combining social innovation for communities and nature inspired innovation to support the natural commons and conditions conducive to life.

Hulst received her Bachelor’s in Biology at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and her MSC in Science Technology and Innovation Dynamics at University of Amsterdam. She is based in Europe just outside of Amsterdam and lives there with her husband, two children, and two cats.