Dr. Paul Smith

Dr Paul Smith is the Secretary General of Botanic Gardens Conservation International, a not-for-profit organization that promotes plant conservation in botanic gardens. He is the former Head of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew's Millennium Seed Bank (MSB)-the largest and most diverse seed bank in the world. During the last five years, Paul and his team have promoted the concept of seed banks as a resource for human innovation, adaptation, and resilience, and today seeds from the MSB and its...See more

Dr Paul Smith is the Secretary General of Botanic Gardens Conservation International, a not-for-profit organization that promotes plant conservation in botanic gardens. He is the former Head of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew's Millennium Seed Bank (MSB)-the largest and most diverse seed bank in the world. During the last five years, Paul and his team have promoted the concept of seed banks as a resource for human innovation, adaptation, and resilience, and today seeds from the MSB and its partner seed banks are being used in agriculture, horticulture, forestry, and habitat restoration. Paul trained as a plant ecologist and is a specialist in the plants and vegetation of southern Africa. He is the author of two field guides to the flora of south-central Africa and the Atlas of the Vegetation of Madagascar (Kew). He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Geographical Society. See less