John A. Burton

John Burton, Chief Executive Officer of the World Land Trust.

"On leaving school, John joined the staff of the Natural History Museum in London, and worked as an Assistant information Officer. He left in 1969 to pursue a freelance career initially as a natural history writer and journalist, but soon moved into conservation. With an extensive background in both journalism and conservation, John Burton has worked across many high profile international environmental organisations for the last 30 years including Friends of the Earth and as chief executive of Fauna and Flora International. He set up the first TRAFFIC offices for IUCN, has been involved with the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Unit and was founding chairman of the Bat Conservation Trust.

"John has also been a regular columnist with New Scientist, assistant editor of Animals magazine (now BBC Wildlife) and, in particular, a natural history author specialising in field guides including guides to European Mammals, North American Mammals and European Reptiles and Amphibians. John has also written six children’s books and edited several multi-author works including the National Trust Book of British Wildlife, Owls of the World and the Atlas of Endangered Species. He has also written several books on garden wildlife. He has written or edited over 40 books (see the bibliography of books by John A Burton).

"As a consultant he has worked for a wide range of government, intergovernment and commercial agencies, including USAID, the World Bank, CITES, DFID, HarperCollins, Wade Furniture Ltd, and English Nature. He regularly carries out consultancy particularly relating to endangered species listings (utilising one of the foremost collections of Red Data Books), and recently has specialised in training conservationists with particular respect to fundraising for land purchase, and also establishing small NGOs.

"In the 1970s and 1980s John was a regular broadcaster, and this included being a presenter for Countrysearch and with Johnny Morris in Animal Magic, as well as regular broadcasts on the BBC World Service. Working with the Wildscreen Trust he also carried out the feasibility study which ultimately led to the creation of Arkive, in Bristol.

"In 1989 John founded the World Land Trust and has been its CEO ever since. Over the last ten years the Trust has raised in excess of $7 million for conservation, purchasing and protecting land in Belize, the Philippines, Costa Rica, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Paraguay, India, Venezuela and other parts of the world.

"In 2005, John was appointed a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Biology of the University of East Anglia (Norwich), in recognition of the WLT's work with its students. The Diploma course in Conservation and Project Administration is a collaboration between the University of East Anglia and the World Land Trust. In 2005 John was appointed to the Editorial Statutory Board of BBC Wildlife Magazine, and from 2007-2008 he was a Trustee of the newly created BBC Wildlife Fund."

"He has been a member of the Advisory Panel to the Scottish Widows Environmental Investment Fund (since its foundation by the TSB in 1990)."

His blog is http://johns-green-issues.blogspot.com

His wife is Vivien Burton.


 * Conservation Advisor, International Trust for Nature Conservation

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Gerard A. Bertrand
 * Bat Conservation Trust