Draft:Jan (Louis) Betlem

Jan Betlem (1957 - ) is a Dutch all-round ecologist, born and grown up in the Southern part of the Netherlands, close to the Nature Reserve Bunderbos. As youngest son in a nature loving family, he became soon a keen local conservationist; already in 1969 -when he was only 12 years old-, he won a price (his first bird identification field guide) in a competition held by his Primary School. Supporting his Secondary School teacher Jo Erkens with bird ringing and preparations for producing nature conservation documentaries for television, gave him unique possibilities to learn more about the always interesting environmental issues in the region.

From 1975 till 1979 Betlem studied forestry and nature conservation at the Forestry College (Hogere Bosbouw-en Cultuur Technische School, currently Hogeschool Van Hall Larenstein), Velp, the Netherlands. While at the Forestry College in Velp, his reports about nature conservation issues drew the attention of national environmentalists (like publicist Jan. P. Strijbos, who wrote in 1978 an introduction to Jan’s report about the controversial cement producing factory in Southern Limburg). With support from the ornithologist (Sjoerd Braaksma) from the Dutch State Forestry Service (Staatsbosbeheer) Betlem published in 1980 the report entitled “The status of the Barn owl (Tyto alba guttata) in the Dutch province of Limburg”.

Exactly on the day of his 21st birthday (minimum legal age to become appointed) in 1978, Jan Betlem became Controleur Vogelwet 1936 (Special Constable Bird Act 1936), and in 1979 Controleur Natuurbeschermingswet (Special Constable Nature Protection Act) with the Ministry of Culture, Recreation, and Social Work which was at that time the ministry in charge of nature conservation in the Netherlands.

Jan Betlem and his family have been living since 1980 in the tropics, mostly in Africa (Senegal, Mali, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya).

Having been in the middle of and narrowly escaping out the Westgate Shopping Mall terrorist attack on 21st September 2013, the family gradually relocated to other countries.

Jan Betlem is married with Mette van der Feijst; the couple has 2 sons.

Professional Career

Betlem started his professional career in 1980 as Project Manager for the project ‘Human Interference in the Tropical Rainforest’ with the Center of Agricultural Research in Suriname (CELOS), in Paramaribo, Suriname. This project helped to understand how interventions in the Tropical Rainforest result in nutrient loss of the ecosystem if these interventions are not carefully planned and executed. Expelled by the than military regime of Desi Bouterse, Betlem returned end 1983 to the Netherlands to join the Heidemij in Assen as Project Manager for Forestry projects. In November 1985 Betlem joined the Dutch Development Cooperation through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and started as Associated Expert (and was later promoted to Expert) with the project ‘Projet Bois de Villages et Reconstitution des Forets Classees de Gonakie’, duty station Podor, Senegal. Podor is the northernmost town in Senegal, situated on Morfil Island between the Sénégal River and Doué River on the border with Mauritania. The project included the restoration of the Acacia nilotica forests in the State Forests as delineated during colonial times along the River Senegal. Based on the data collected and research conducted during his stay in Senegal, Betlem obtained his Master of Science degree from the ITC, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente, the Netherlands – Rural-and Land Ecology (1989). Again for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Betlem was during the period 1990 - 1991 Project Leader of the project ‘Projet d’Appui a la Foresterie Villageoise’, duty station Bamako, Mali. End 1991 Jan Betlem joined the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, with duty station Mbale, Uganda) to become the Chief Technical Advisor of the Mount Elgon Conservation and Development Project, a collaborative effort supporting the Forestry Department and the Uganda Wildlife Authority. With his support, the Mount Elgon National Park was gazetted in January 1994, and support was provided for park management as well as for sustainable development of the area surrounding the new National Park. In May 1994, Betlem joined again the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Project Leader for the project ‘Netherlands Assistance to the Department of Environment’, duty station Zanzibar. At the end of the project, some 350 tons of obsolete pesticides were collected and exported for destruction. Being a keen naturalist scuba diver and a Dive Master, he extensively dived the coasts of Zanzibar and Pemba. In 1997, still with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Betlem was transferred to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), to become the Project Leader for the project ‘Chemical Waste Management in Tanzania’ (a project executed in collaboration with the National Environment Management Council). During a 2 years period, some 1300 tons of Obsolete Pesticides (amongst these: some 200 tons of Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs) were discovered, identified and classified. A proposal for their collection and destruction was formulated which led (at later date) to the destruction of most of the discovered obsolete pesticides. In 1999, Jan Betlem supported FACE Foundation (currently known as Face the Future), an international NGO which received funding from the electricity producing utilities in the Netherlands, in order to identify, initiate, and advice in Ecuador, Uganda, Sabah-Malaysia, Czech Republic and other countries new forestry projects for carbon sequestration. From 2000-2004 Betlem joined the environmental consulting company Tauw in the Netherlands as Senior Advisor Programme Development Obsolete Pesticides. Key tasks included the co-ordination of a number of ongoing (international) projects of Tauw as well as identifying and initiating new projects in the fields of soil, water and air, paying special attention to obsolete pesticide inventory-, disposal,- prevention and awareness raising activities, sites contaminated through pesticides (including POPs pesticides). Jan Betlem was at that time considered internationally to be one of the very few leading experts in the field of Obsolete Pesticides Management with both practical Obsolete Pesticides Management and long term residence project/program management experience. As ‘Gifjager’ (Toxic Waste Hunter) he appeared several times in Dutch talk shows on television and radio. After the adoption of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in May 2001, Betlem became independent consultant in 2004 and worked with the United Nations Development Organisation (UNDP), Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and governments of developing countries in order to train national experts in the field of obsolete pesticides & POPs collection and disposal. Jan Betlem has trained key government staff (responsible for agriculture and the environment) in Sudan, Thailand, Cambodia, Russia, Egypt, Mali, Georgia, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Romania, to mention but a few. In Syria he provided in 2005, on behalf of the FAO, project management oversight and technical support for a country wide cleaning up operation resulting in the collection and destruction of 200 tons of toxic and dangerous Lindane (HCH) and 400 tons mixed obsolete pesticides. In May 2006 Betlem joined the United Nations Environment Programme – UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya, as staff member till his retirement in 2022. Professionally trained and certified as Project Manager he is widely acknowledged for his Project Management experience. He has been Task Manager for POPs related issues and based at UNEPs Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, and in close collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Secretariat for the Stockholm Convention (SSC) he developed the Global DSSA Programme (Demonstrating and Scaling-up of Sustainable Alternatives to DDT in Vector Management Global Programme -Global DSSA Programme), a programme including some 10 larger mostly regional projects with a project portfolio of about 70 million US$. The DSSA Global Programme was approved by the Council of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) on 23 April 2008. After an internal transfer, Jan Betlem became Head of Monitoring, Quality Assurance Section (QAS) of UNEP and was charged with the introduction and promotion (including trainings at all UNEP duty stations) of Results Based Management (RBM), and the provision of programme progress data to the UNEP corporate level. In 2017, Betlem was transferred to the Secretariat of the Cartagena Convention in Kingston, Jamaica, to be UNEP’s Regional Project Coordinator for the regional project “Integrating Water, Land and Ecosystems Management in Caribbean Small Island Developing States” (IWEco), a project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and executed by the Caribbean Environment Programme of the Cartagena Convention Secretariat. As all round and dedicated ecologist, Betlem has always been outspoken about the unsustainable global economic system which comes unfortunately with great social- and environmental costs. During his career, he has always pointed towards threats to the environment and emphasized consistently the need to give also space to nature and ecosystem services for the benefit of the planet in general and a healthy environment in particular. Jan Betlem had resident and diplomatic status in Senegal, Mali, Uganda, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Kenya and Jamaica, he has traveled for professional work to over 100 different countries. After retirement, Jan Betlem and his wife have taken up residency in Romania.