Eva Boonaert

Eva Boonaert is a dedicated doctoral researcher at KU Leuven's Division of Bioeconomics, where she combines her expertise in sustainability, agriculture, and food systems research. With a Master's degree in Bioscience Engineering from KU Leuven, specializing in Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics and Forest, Nature and Landscape Planning, she has established herself as a promising researcher in agricultural sustainability. Her doctoral research focuses on investigating how food can be produced in a more socioeconomically and ecologically responsible way, with particular emphasis on eco-labels such as Fairtrade and Organic. Her work has gained significant recognition through publications in prestigious journals like Food Policy and Global Policy, where she has contributed valuable insights on voluntary sustainability standards and their impact on farmer welfare. Her research in Peru specifically examines the effectiveness of sustainability standards across all three pillars of sustainability - social, economic, and environmental - with groundbreaking findings showing that market-based incentives and capacity building are more effective at improving farm revenue than strict rule enforcement. As part of the VSS4f/wOOD project, she continues to make meaningful contributions to understanding how voluntary sustainability standards can create positive outcomes in global food systems.