Graham von Maltitz is a research fellow of the Botany Department, University of Stellenbosch. He was previously a principle researcher and research group leader of the Global Change and Ecosystems Dynamics group of the Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) unit, CSIR, South Africa, where he has over 30 years of experience.

He trained as a systems ecologist, and rural development specialist, with a focus on the coupled socio-ecological aspects of savanna and grassland regions of southern Africa. He has a specific research interest in areas of communal land tenure and on the unique problems associated with resource management in these areas, especially as they are impacted by global change. This has focused extensively on what is often termed community based natural resource management (CBNRM), where sustainability of the resource can be used to support energy provision, local livelihoods, tourism, or downstream and global benefits. Identifying drivers of sustainability has underpinned this research which has been used to better understand land use planning and sustainable land management.

He has a long term research interest in desertification and degradation, having been linked to both national and international initiatives and policy development, including being a coordinator of South Africa's initial National Action Program (NAP) on Desertification, and a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPBES Land Degradation and Restoration Assessment. Recently he has updated the South African national assessment of terrestrial an soil organic carbon stocks.