Peres was born in
Belém, Brazil, and was exposed to Amazonian natural history from early childhood on his father's ranch in eastern
Pará, which consisted largely of
primary forest. Since 1982 he has been studying wildlife community ecology in Amazonian forests, the biological criteria for designing nature reserves, and the
population ecology of resource management within and outside protected areas. He currently is involved in four conservation ecology research programs in different parts of Amazonia. He has published over 350 papers on neotropical forest ecology and conservation at scales ranging from single populations to entire regional landscapes. Peres was the co-editor with W.F. Laurance of the 2006 book
Emerging Threats to Tropical Forests. He currently divides his time between
Norwich,
Aarhus and fieldwork in the
Brazilian Amazon.
Academic posts •
Post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Zoology,
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi in Belém (1991–92) • Post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Tropical Conservation at
Duke University in the US (1993) • Assistant professor at the Department of Ecology of
University of São Paulo (1993–95) • Senior research associate at the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) at the
University of East Anglia (1995–96) • Lecturer at the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia (1996–2002) •
Reader at the University of East Anglia (2002–08) • Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of East Anglia (2008–present) • Visiting professor of Conservation Biology at Aarhus University, Denmark (2018) ==Awards and recognition==