Richard Warner returned to the Midwest in the fall of 2010 and serves as the Green Lands Blue Waters (GLBW) Director. Warner has more than 30 years experience building and managing programs related to land management embracing agriculture, forestry, and natural ecosystems, including support to value chains for rural enterprises, strengthening of rural communities, and environmental management.
Before coming to GLBW, Warner was a Director at Chemonics International, where he managed U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) projects in Central and South America, and served as Program Manager for the global Biodiversity and Agriculture Commodities Program of the International Finance Corporation. Projects he managed addressed value chain development for agriculture, forestry and tourism, watershed management, the successful establishment of payments for ecosystems services, and support to national parks.
Between 2000 and 2008, he served as a consultant for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Defense, USAID, and international agencies, including the European Union, the World Bank, and the United Nations Development Program. Warner led or participated in programs and research ranging from anticipated climate change impacts on American rivers, to environmental impacts of free trade agreements, biodiversity assessments for Russia and four Eastern European countries, and design of national environmental monitoring protocols. Warner also established and served as Director of the global Natural Resource Information Clearinghouse for USAID.
From 1995 to 1999, he was instrumental in the formation of NatureServe and served as the first Executive Director of the precursor organization. From 1982 to 1994, Warner was with The Nature Conservancy, where he helped to create and support the consortium of more than 70 Natural Heritage Programs and Conservation Data Centers that continue to operate in all U.S. states, Canadian provinces, and about a dozen countries in Latin America.
Warner was raised in Minnesota, where his extended family continues farming the land they homesteaded near Walnut Grove. He received his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Minnesota in ethnobotany and plant systematics. Warner continues his research on the neo-tropical genus Monolena (Melastomataceae). He is a gardener, baker, and an avid hunter and fisherman.