Claus settled in Latin America in 1997, starting with a six-year stay in the Amazon, engaging indigenous people in environmental monitoring, sustainable economic development, including ecotourism; and establishing innovative protected areas management regimes.
Some of Latin America’s most renowned lawyers then trained him in legal matters and human rights-based development strategies, and since then, Claus managed for seven years, intercultural governance and poverty eradication programs in Central America, served as director to a World Bank infrastructure project, and managed a land titling process in culturally complex territories in collaboration with national environment authorities. He spent two years as a consultant evaluating natural resource management programs and most recently he was the regional representative of the environment organization, Forests of the World.
Before Google Earth existed, Claus was conducting expeditions to the Earth’s most remote and indigenous territories. He co-owned the Danish travel agency “Seven C’s Adventure Group” which financed his studies and was eventually sold after five years.
Education: Civil Engineer and Land Surveyor / MSc International Development Studies from Aalborg University and Roskilde University, Denmark.
