John E. Scanlon

John E. Scanlon (born 1961 in Australia) has worked on environment and sustainable development issues at the international, national, sub-national and local level with government, the private sector, international organisations and the United Nations. He has specific expertise on law, policy, institutions and governance. He is the Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Before joining CITES, he was Principal Adviser on Policy and Programme, and Team Leader of the Strategic Implementation Team, at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Director of the Environmental Law Centre with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Before that he was Chief Executive of the Department of Environment, Heritage and Aboriginal Affairs in South Australia.

Scanlon was born in Australia in 1961 and holds Australian as well as British citizenship. He obtained an LLB from the University of Adelaide, a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the South Australian Institute of Technology, and an LLM (Environmental) from the Australian Centre for Environmental Law, University of Adelaide.

Scanlon started his career in 1984 at the law firm Ward & Partners in Adelaide, Australia, where he was made a Capital Partner in 1991. After leaving legal practice he served as Chief of Staff to the South Australian Minister for Environment and Natural Resources. From 1997 to 2000 he was Chief Executive of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and later the Department for Environment, Heritage and Aboriginal Affairs in South Australia. From 2001 to 2004 he was Director of the Environmental Law Centre with International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Head of the Environmental Law Programme. He was the first Independent Commissioner appointed to the Murray Darling Basin Commission in 2006 and presented the first minority report in the 100-year history of the Commission in the same year. In 2007 he accepted an appointment as Principal Adviser on Policy and Programme with UNEP.

Scanlon was appointed as Secretary General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2010. He assumed his role with CITES in May 2010. He was the first signiatory to the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) in late 2010, which CITES chairs. ICCWC is a collaborative initiative between the CITES Secretariat, INTERPOL, UNODC, the World Bank and the World Customs Organisation. He gave testimony before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Ivory and Insecurity: The Global Implications of Poaching in Africa in May, 2012 and has addressed multiple UN and non UN organizations in promoting the Convention, in particular as it relates to combating illegal wildlife trade.

Scanlon has received a number of honours and awards for his work:

• Member of the Order of Australia (AM) 2011
• International Environmental Law Award (CIEL) 2013
• Baobab Award for Innovation (UNEP) 2015
• Honorary Conservation Fellow (London Zoological Society) 2015
• Doctor Honoris Causa by the Ilia State University, Georgia 2015