A broad forested river landscape in the Peruvian Amazon at sunrise.

Conservation Practice

Science in service of Indigenous territorial stewardship.

I serve as Director of Conservation Science at OnePlanet, where I connect ecological research with Indigenous-led responses to threats affecting Amazonian lands, wildlife, and livelihoods.

OnePlanet

Conservation practice begins with long-term partnership.

OnePlanet partners with Amazonian Indigenous communities working to conserve and defend their ancestral lands and cultural traditions. Its programs connect community well-being, territorial stewardship, and sustainable livelihoods, with land defense, community monitoring, and Indigenous governance central to its conservation approach.

My role is to develop and apply scientific evidence within that broader work: documenting wildlife and landscape values, evaluating threats, supporting monitoring, and helping translate research into public communication and policy engagement.

Visit OnePlanet ↗

Ancestral Lands Defense

Defending a connected Indigenous landscape from a major highway threat.

The Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area protects approximately one million acres of ancestral Maijuna territory within the larger Napo–Putumayo–Bajo Amazonas landscape. The proposed Iquitos–El Estrecho highway would cross this conservation area and continue toward the Colombian border, fragmenting intact forest and increasing access for illegal mining, logging, coca cultivation, and trafficking.

Legend and layers

The highway is planned in four phases from Iquitos toward El Estrecho. Its final 147-kilometer segment would cross the Maijuna-Kichwa, Ampiyacu-Apayacu, and Medio Putumayo Algodón regional conservation areas.

Build Indigenous and binational coordination

OnePlanet helped establish coordination among Maijuna leaders, Indigenous federations in Loreto, and organizations in Peru and Colombia confronting a shared transboundary threat.

Put evidence into advocacy

A 2026 threat assessment documented how the highway could consolidate a corridor for environmental crime. Indigenous organizations incorporated its findings into communications with government and congressional decision-makers.

Strengthen territorial monitoring

An early-warning system links community reporting with partner coordination. Alerts concerning suspected illegal gold mining have already supported faster information-sharing and response planning.

Scholarship

Research on territorial governance, connectivity, and conservation.

These studies provide ecological and social evidence relevant to management of the Maijuna-Kichwa Regional Conservation Area and the connected landscape threatened by the highway.

2025Proposed highway in the Peruvian Amazon threatens vulnerable Indigenous communities and their landsRead paper ↗2025A rush to pave the Peruvian Amazon: Bypassing the law, a highway megadevelopment project threatens Indigenous land rights and biocultural resourcesRead paper ↗2026Indigenous perspectives on the co-management of a regional conservation area in the Peruvian AmazonRead paper ↗2026Source-sink dynamics facilitate mammal recovery after unsustainable hunting in a community-managed natural protected area in the Peruvian AmazonInteractive publication →2026Ecological and sociocultural systems create a strong foundation for sustainable wildlife management in the AmazonRead paper ↗

Public Scholarship & Media

Bringing conservation evidence into public discussion.

Public writing, interviews, and field reporting extend questions about Amazonian infrastructure, wildlife, food systems, and territorial defense beyond scholarly journals.

Public Writing

Science Politics · 2026

Media & Interviews

Rewilding Amazonia / Rewildology · 2026

Science in service of Indigenous territorial stewardship.

Conservation practice begins with long-term partnership.

Defending a connected Indigenous landscape from a major highway threat.

Build Indigenous and binational coordination

Put evidence into advocacy

Strengthen territorial monitoring

Research on territorial governance, connectivity, and conservation.

Bringing conservation evidence into public discussion.

Public Writing

Investing in gold is causing irreparable harm to Earth’s wild places

Venda de carnes silvestres, tanto para subsistência quanto para servir turistas, ameaça mamíferos da Amazônia

Rodovia ameaça destruir terras indígenas e floresta na Amazônia peruana, alertam especialistas

A mais nova área protegida da Amazônia peruana e os povos que dependem dela enfrentam uma ameaça existencial

Food, culture, and conservation in Maijuna lands

Media & Interviews

The ghost forest: Bringing wildlife back from the brink

UD alumnus Brian Griffiths takes conservation skills to Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon

ECo Awards are supporting big questions and bigger answers, on and off campus

What it’s like to live in the Amazon for three weeks

5 things you need to know before going into the jungle from a conservationist

Temporada 2, Episodio 7: Investigación y conservación de la Amazonia con Brian Griffiths, Ph.D.