Nienke van der Burgt is a Dutch national who joined Milieu in October 2008. She has since been involved as legal expert and project manager in projects in various fields, ranging from environmental law to fundamental rights. As legal expert, she analysed the transposition of various Directives for the Netherlands and has been involved in alignment checks for non-EU countries. She acted as legal expert on various studies in the field of waste, chemicals, marine litter, maritime safety and water. Nienke managed various studies, such as study on the ex-post impact assessment on the implementation and effects of the Third Maritime Safety Package; a study on Regional Ocean Governance and the role of fisheries and a study on the precautionary principle in EU environmental policies.

Parallel to her work for Milieu, she also works as an international legal expert on legal gap assessment and legal drafting projects. She has been conducting gap assessment of fisheries legislation in Grenada and Suriname (FAO) and drafted fisheries legislation for Suriname (FAO). She also conducted gap assessment of protected area legislation (St. Kitts and Nevis) as well as Marine Protected Areas legislation (Albania) for UNDP.

Before joining Milieu, she completed her PhD on international and European fisheries law and sustainable development at the VU University Amsterdam (2010). At the VU University she was also teaching international law of the sea and coordinating an interdisciplinary course on development issues.