Ο Vasilios P. Papanastasis is professor emeritus of the Department of Forestry and Natural Environment of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (A.U.Th.). He studied forestry at the School of Agriculture and Forestry of A.U.Th. and did graduate studies in range management at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, from where he received a postgraduate diploma (M.Sc.) and a doctorate (Ph.D.). He served for 19 years in the Forest Service of the Ministry of Agriculture, as a researcher at the Forest Research Institute of Thessaloniki, where he conducted research related to the ecology and management of rangelands. In 1982 he was elected titular lecturer and in 1986 faculty member at the School of Forestry and Natural Environment of A.U.Th. (associate professor and subsequently full professor of rangeland ecology), where he worked for 23 years and retired in 2009. He served repeatedly as Director of the Rangeland and Wildlife Management-Freshwater Fisheries Division and as Director of the Rangeland Ecology Laboratory for a 10-year period.

He has been a scientific leader in 16 national and 14 European research projects, in one of which he was also the general coordinator, as well as a member of the research team in another 30. He has participated in several national and international conferences. He has been awarded twice by the Academy of Athens for original research on rangelands as well as by the Research Committee of the Aristotle University for publication of a paper related to desertification in the prestigious journal Nature. He served as a member of editorial boards and as a reviewer of submitted papers in several national and international journals. He has written approximately 500 scientific papers, including 5 textbooks on range management and agroforestry.

He participated in several committees of the Ministry of Agriculture related to the formation of forest policy in Greece and especially the policy on management of rangelands, the most important of which was the committee that drew up the specifications for the grazing management plans. He was also a member of many national and international scientific societies. He participated in the administrative council of the Hellenic Forestry Society and the Hellenic Rangeland Society, in which he repeatedly served as president. He is currently the president of the Hellenic Agroforestry Network aiming at promoting the science and practice of agroforestry in Greece.