JB as he is called by his friends is an ecologist with a broad interest in the conservation of tropical social-ecological systems. João has been working in the Amazon since 2008, focusing on biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, protected areas, and community management of natural resources. João found his professional happiness in trying to understand how to align biodiversity conservation and human well-being, and believes that a sustainable destiny for the Amazon will only be possible if conservation ensures quality of life for local communities.

Born in Belém, Brazil, Carlos Peres was exposed to Amazonian natural history from age seven and his father's 5,000-ha landholding in eastern Pará, consisting largely of undisturbed primary forest, became a childhood playground. For the last 30 years he has been studying wildlife community ecology in Amazonian forests, the population ecology of key tropical forest resource populations, and the biological criteria for designing large nature reserves. He currently co-directs four ecology and conservation research programs in Amazonian forests, including the ecology of key timber and non-timber forest resources; patterns of vertebrate assemblage structure in Amazonian forests; the biological dynamics of hyper-disturbed and fragmented forest landscapes, and the biodiversity consequences of land-use change. He has published ~400 papers on neotropical forest ecology and conservation at scales ranging from populations to landscapes, and to entire continents. He has received several international awards including the "Biodiversity Conservation Leadership Award" from the Bay and Paul Foundation, USA (1995), and the "Environmentalist Leader for the New Millennium" by Time Magazine and CNN network (2000). He is a Professor in Tropical Conservation Ecology and divides his time between Norwich and fieldwork at multiple field sites in neotropical forests.

Many researchers arrive in a new area of ​​study, develop their projects, and leave soon after the data is collected, perhaps never to return. When he arrived in Juruá in 2013, Hugo decided he didn't want to leave because he had built very strong bonds there. The desire to stay and contribute to the long-term development of the region was fertile ground for founding the Instituto Juruá together with the other researchers who were already working on the Juruá River. As financial director, he seeks to implement management tools that are increasingly efficient, less bureaucratic and transparent.