Gary Nabhan

Gary Paul Nabhan is an agricultural ecologist, ethnobotanist, Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, and author of 30 books whose work has focused primarily on the plants and cultures of the desert Southwest. He is considered a pioneer in the local food movement and the heirloom seed saving movement. The unifying theme of Nabhan's work is how to avert the impoverishment and endangerment of ecological and cultural relationships, while celebrating the traditional ecological knowledge of the agrarian communities. He has played a catalytic role in the multicultural, collaborative conservation movement, being one of the co-authors of its populist manifesto, "An Invitation to the Radical Center". Nabhan was among the first creative non-fiction writers to link the loss of biodiversity to the loss of cultural diversity. He has been a significant contributor in calling attention to the environmental issue of pollinator decline. He founded the Forgotten Pollinators Campaign, the Migratory Pollinators Conservation Initiative, and attempts to restore nectar corridors for pollinators in bi-national watersheds around his home in Patagonia, Arizona, which he calls the "pollinator diversity capitol of the United States." He is also champion of rainwater harvesting for agroforestry , which he implements in his own orchard and gardens, and he has written introductions on this topic in permaculture books by Bill Mollison and Brad Lancaster.