IUCN SSC Carnivorous Plant Specialist Group

Robert Cantley was educated as a physicist and then later as an electronics engineer, with his final “real” job being a police officer in Hong Kong. Along the way he became interested in Nepenthes when living in Brunei, where he ran a small nursery business from 1984 -1990 whilst also pursuing his many other interests. In 1997 he resigned from the Royal Hong Kong Police to start the a Company called Borneo Exotics www.borneoexotics.net in Sri Lanka. Borneo Exotics is a business venture employing over 80 people but also plays a role in conservation, by legally propagating many endangered species of carnivorous plants using state of the art plant tissue culture techniques. Robert has been involved with conservation work with carnivorous plants since his late teens and contributed data of many taxa of Nepenthes that helped form earlier versions of the Red List.

I am a taxonomic botanist and conservationist. My interest in Carnivorous Plants began pre-University studies. My professional focus is tropical Africa but I have a long record of research on Nepenthes with Matthew Jebb. I have also worked on several other carnivorous plant groups.