Global Diversity Fund Executive Director

Since the US based Global Diversity Fund was formed in 2006, Gary J. Martin has been its Executive Director.  Under his direction, the GDF family of organizations has launched an international program of research, training and social action that focuses on the challenges facing agricultural, biological and cultural diversity. The Executive Director develops the activities and operations of the Global Diversity Fund in collaboration with the Board of Directors, regional coordinators, advisory committees and partner institutions around the world.

Gary J. Martin

Gary J. Martin has been with GDF since 1999, beginning as Director of the UK based Global Diversity Foundation. He has been the driving force behind establishing long-term ‘observatories’ of cultural and natural diversity at selected field sites in Asia, Africa and Latin America.  In addition, he offers courses on Contemporary Issues in Ethnobiology and Ethnoecological Field Methods at various universities and field sites.

He has been involved in conservation and ethnobotanical work for over twenty-five years, starting with a gap year in 1980 in which he carried out fieldwork in Mexico. He holds a BS in botany from Michigan State University and a MA and PhD in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. He conducted his doctoral research on the comparative ethnobotany of Chinantec and Mixe peoples of the Sierra Norte, Oaxaca, Mexico.

From 1992 to 2000, he was a field coordinator for the People and Plants Inititive on ethnobotany and sustainable use of plant resources, a joint effort of WWF-UK, UNESCO and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

In 1999, he was appointed Research Fellow and Lecturer in the Anthropology Department at the University of Kent, where he teaches and supervises students in the Ethnobotany MSc and Ethnobiology MPhil/PhD programs.

He serves as a Director of Diversity Excursions Ltd., the trading subsidiary of GDF, which is dedicated to providing ecologically appropriate and scientifically informative travel to southern Morocco.

In addition to English (his mother tongue), he speaks French and Spanish fluently.

For additional staff profiles see International Training and Regional Programs sections.