Marie-José received her MSc in Social Sciences with specialism ‘Development Studies’ from the Third World Centre, Nijmegen University in 1985. She has taken several post-doc environmental and ‘Management of not-for-profit organisations’ courses.
She has worked for many years in the environmental sector, as a consultant, project manager and program coordinator, to mobilize resources, deliver trainings & facilitate capacity building, support policy & advocacy campaigns and coordinate programs on ecosystem restoration and management. Building local capacities and creating multi stakeholder environments to enhance linkages between nature conservation and poverty reduction is key in her work.
Between 1992 – 2000, Marie-José worked with Both ENDS (Environment and Development service for NGOs) as Coordinator of the Asia programme and the last few years as director ai.