Jon Hutton was educated at Louth Grammar School and Jesus College, Cambridge where he received an Master of Arts in Applied Biology in 1978. After graduation he emigrated to Africa where, in 1984, his comprehensive study of the Nile crocodile and its ecology earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Zimbabwe.
Foreign the next 10 years Hutton held various positions in the government of Zimbabwe including as Curator of Mammals at the National Museum and Senior Ecologist in the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management. ART sought to strengthen the role of local communities in nature conservation by generating economic benefits from sustainable wildlife management – an approach to conservation that was not widely accepted at the time. In 1999, following political difficulties in Zimbabwe, Hutton moved to the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge where he contributed to a number of research topics including the management of global wildlife trade, the application of the Precautionary Principle in wildlife management and changing narratives in conservation.
In 2003, he was asked by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) to expand its wildlife conservation activities in Africa, the success of which brought him to the attention of Klaus Toepfer, then Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme (United Nations Environment Programme) based in Nairobi.
In 1994 he became a Founder of the Africa Resources Trust (ART), an non-governmental organization that he directed from Harare, Zimbabwe, for the next decade. In 1998 Hutton was appointed Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Sustainable Use Specialist Group which won a reputation for promoting innovative conservation strategies based on a cocktail of human rights and economic incentives. As a result, Hutton joined United Nations Environment Programme as Director of its World Conservation Monitoring Centre (United Nations Environment Programme-WCMC) which in recent years has achieved significant acclaim for the authoritative nature and impact of its work on biodiversity analysis and assessment. Hutton has received numerous awards in recognition of his contribution to conservation.
In 2005 he was elected a member of Hughes Hall at the University of Cambridge and in 2007 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Sustainable Resource Management at the University of Kent.
