Heleen van Kernebeek

Heleen van Kernebeek is a Researcher at Wageningen University & Research within the Animal Farming Systems group, focusing on sustainable agricultural transitions. Her work integrates agroforestry into dairy farming systems to enhance biodiversity, climate resilience, and ecosystem services while addressing practical implementation barriers for farmers.

Her educational background includes a PhD completed in May 2020 on The role of animals in a sustainable consumption pattern, supervised by Prof. Imke de Boer, Prof. Martin van Ittersum, and Dr. Simon Oosting.

Dr. van Kernebeek's research spans critical domains of sustainable food systems:

• Agroforestry integration in temperate dairy landscapes
• Animal protein sustainability within circular economies
• Natural resource optimization in agricultural production
• Crop-animal production synergies
• Climate-positive farming system design

Her recent 2024-2025 publications reveal a strategic shift toward actionable farmer implementation tools, particularly step-by-step agroforestry adoption frameworks for dairy farms. Key thematic threads include overcoming socioeconomic barriers to agroforestry, quantifying ecosystem services in mixed farming systems, and developing landscape-scale evaluation metrics that balance productivity with biodiversity conservation.

She has received the following scientific recognition:

• Best oral presentation award on the WIAS Science Day (2015)

As an active project leader, she currently manages five research initiatives with significant funding focus on climate-positive agriculture:

• LWV21072 Agroforestry for climate-positive dairy and biodiversity (2025)
• Boerderij van de Toekomst Oost (Future Farm East) - flywheel for the Fieldlab (2025)
• Add_Ontwerpproces Boerderij van de Toekomst Oost NAPRO (2023-2025)
• LWV21072 Agroforestry for climate-positive dairy and biodiversity (2022-2025)
• The role of animals in a sustainable consumption pattern (PhD project, 2011-2020)

She operates within Wageningen's collaborative innovation ecosystem through the Animal Farming Systems research group and Living Landscapes initiative, with hands-on involvement in the Ooijpolder-Groesbeek Living Lab where she co-designs agroforestry solutions with farmers using participatory action research methodologies.