Dr Jon Hutton is widely recognized as an authority on, and enthusiastic participant in, many aspects of international wildlife conservation policy, including CITES and wildlife trade, protected area management, community-based conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources.

In 2001 Jon facilitated a partnership agreement between two Cambridge-based organisations, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and ResourceAfrica (UK). As a result of this partnership, he held the post of Regional Director for Africa within FFI while continuing as the Executive Director, ResourceAfrica (UK). Since November 2005 Jon has been Director of the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Since receiving his doctorate on the population ecology of the Nile crocodile, Jon has held four senior management positions in both the UK and Africa encompassing the government, NGO and private sectors. He has wide professional experience, ranging from the management of zoological collections though field research and management wildlife to policy research and formulation, institution-building and programme management.

During the 1980s, Jon was Senior Ecologist in Zimbabwe’s wildlife department where he was a key member of Zimbabwe’s national delegation to international Multilateral Environmental Agreements, including CITES and the CBD. He represented southern interests on a range of technical panels and committees, including two terms as African representative on the CITES Animals Committee. He has undertaken a number of consultancies for the CITES Secretariat including the Nile Crocodile Project in eight countries of East and southern Africa and an analysis of the Significant Trade Review process.

Jon’s principal interests today lie in the sustainable use of natural resources where he is involved at all levels from policy and legislation to field research and project management. He is a member of the SSC Steering Committee.

At the University of Cambridge Jon is researching issues of international policy and regulation which directly affect development and conservation processes in Africa – especially those which impact upon community-based natural resource management. His work includes an examination of interactions between CITES, the World Trade Organization and unilateral measures taken by economically-powerful Northern countries in the name of environmental protection.

Jon is author of over 50 papers and book chapters on wildlife management and development issues. His most recent book, Endangered Species, Threatened Convention: The Past, Present and Future of CITES, presents a ‘Southern’ view of this Convention. He is currently a Member of the Executive Committee of the IUCN in the UK, a founder member of the Cambridge Conservation Forum, Vice Chair of the SSC Crocodile Specialist Group, a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the Southern African Institute of Ecologists and Environmental Scientists.