With the underlying thought – “Think Globally, Act Locally” (Rene Dubos) – this series of talks is an exploration of current topics on conservation, sustainability and restoration from different viewpoints with different speakers who represent some of the State’s leading conservation groups. Starting with a state- wide perspective, it then brings the focus to Palm Beach County and the surrounding region.

Restoration and Conservation of Habitats and Native Plants – The Importance of Conservation for Endangered and Imperiled Native Plants and Wildlife.

February 1, 2024 – 6:00 pm
George D. Gann, Executive Director, Chief Conservation Strategist, Institute of Regional Conservation

George Gann is founder and executive director of The Institute for Regional Conservation (IRC), based in Delray Beach, Florida, and chair emeritus and international policy lead for the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). Raised a few miles outside of Everglades National Park in an agricultural landscape, Gann witnessed the rapid transformation of southern Florida ecosystems yielding to intense development pressures. Mentored by his parents to cherish nature, he began international travel at a young age and worked in the family native plant nursery business in grade school. Over a 40-year career Gann has played a lead role in the protection, conservation, and restoration of rare biodiversity in southern Florida, especially plants. His work and that of IRC has been featured in the Miami Herald, Washington Post, and around the world via the Associated Press. Gann has completed hundreds of projects, published more than 130 articles, technical reports, websites, and a book. Having worked intensively on native plants and rare plant conservation in Florida and the Caribbean, from large-scale floristic efforts in Florida, Puerto Rico, and Everglades National Park to intensive small-scale projects at residential sites and in botanical gardens, he has given more than 160 presentations to both the general public and technical audiences.

Gann has done significant organizational and conservation policy work globally for The Institute for Regional Conservation and the Society for Ecological Restoration, and botanical field work in more than a dozen Latin American and Caribbean countries. He believes in using traditional conservation tools, such as the establishment and management of protected areas, in addition to new approaches including scaling-up ecological restoration to meet global needs, and utilizing regional matrices of protected areas, restored ecosystems, and naturalistic landscapes to recover native plants, animals, and ecosystems. His extensive professional experience in directing and managing nonprofit conservation organizations has led to work in the United States, the West Indies, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.