Curriculum Vitae

Prof. Dr. Tobias Plieninger is Head of the Chair of "Social-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems" at the Universities of Kassel and Goettingen. He is also Vice Dean of Research at the Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences at the University of Kassel.

He was Associate Professor at the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management at the University of Copenhagen from 2013 to 2017. Before he was leader of a Junior Research Group on “Ecosystem Services in Cultural Landscapes“ at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He studied forestry at the Universities of Freiburg and Goettingen and received a PhD in Landscape Management from the University of Freiburg and a habilitation in Landscape Ecology from Humboldt-University of Berlin.


Research Foci

Tobias Plieninger is a sustainability scientist with a commitment to inter- and transdisciplinary research at the social-ecological interface. In particular, he studies rural landscape change, ecosystem services, and sustainability transformations. His research focuses on the complex relationships between agriculture, forestry, nature conservation, and other sectors of natural resource management.

He was coordinator of the EU-research association „Sustainable Futures for Europe's Heritage in Cultural Landscapes (HERCULES)“ and work-package-leader in the EU-research associations „Agroforestry that will Advance Rural Development (AGFORWARD)“ and „Spurring Innovations in Forest Ecosystem Services in Europe (SINCERE)“.


Board memberships and reviews (selection)


Publications (selection)


Academic distinctions

  • Since 2023 Member of Academia Europaea
  • Since 2022 Henriette Herz Scout, Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation
  • Since 2019 Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher


Fur­ther pu­bli­ca­ti­ons: