Jonathan Barzdo is an independent consultant, focusing primarily on issues relating to the use of wild animals and plants and regulation of wildlife trade. He supports governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, institutions and companies to ensure that such trade is legal, sustainable and well managed. His work also encompasses organizational governance related to conservation management.

He was formerly: Deputy Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands; Chief of Governing Bodies of the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES); consultant for the European Commission, where he drafted the regulations that implement CITES in the European Union; Head of the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Unit of the World Conservation Monitoring Centre; and Director of TRAFFIC International. Earlier in his career, he was a wildlife consultant, warden of a bird hospital, a zoo keeper, and a genetics research assistant.