Chuck Peters is a forester/plant ecologist who studies the ecology, use, and management of tropical forest resources.  He has a forestry degree from the University of Arkansas and a Masters and Ph.D. in ecology from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.  He has been investigating ways to improve the management of tropical forests for over 25 years.  Most of this research is done in close collaboration with local community groups
 
Dr. Peters is currently working in the Tapajos-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve in Brazil with several communities who are developing management plans for the sustainable production of furniture woods.  He is also involved in a project in the Central Valley of Oaxaca in Mexico to manage tropical dry forest, and has recently started work in Myanmar to look at the exploitation of rattan in tiger preserves.  He has conducted long-term field research in the Peruvian Amazon, Papua New Guinea, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and Veracruz, Mexico, and has directed community forestry projects in Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Uganda, and Cameroon.. He is the author of numerous scholarly papers and articles, and he has written two books on the sustainable management of tropical forests.  He teaches tropical ecology and ethnobotany at Yale and Columbia University, and is the editor of the monograph series Advances in Economic Botany. Dr. Peters is currently the Kate E. Tode Curator of Botany at the Institute of Economic Botany of the New York Botanical Garden.

Downloadable Resources:

Peters, C. M. Sustainable Harvest of Non-Timber Plant Resources in Tropical Moist Forest: an Ecological Primer

Peters, C.M., S. Purata,  M. Chibnik, B. Brosi, A. Lopez, and M. Ambrosio. 2003. The life and times of Bursera glabrifolia (.H.B.K.) Engl. in Mexico: A parable for ethnobotany. Economic Botany 57: 431-441

Peters, C.M. A protocol for participatory inventories of timber and nontimber forest products in Cameroon.

Other Selected Publications:

Peters, C.M. 1994. Sustainable Harvest of Non-timber Plant Resources in Tropical Moist Forests: An Ecological Primer. Biodiversity Support Program, Washington D.C. (published in English, Spanish, French, and Indonesian).

Peters, C. M. and W. Giesen. 2001. Balancing supply and demand: A case study of rattan. Borneo Research Bulletin 31: 138-149.

Peters, C.M. 2000. Pre-Columbian silviculture and indigenous management of neotropical forests, pp. 203-224 in D. Lentz (ed.), Imperfect Balance: Landscape Transformations in the Pre-Columbian Americas. Columbia University Press.

Peters, C.M. 1990. Population ecology and management of forest fruit trees in Peruvian Amazonia, pp. 86-98 in A.B. Anderson (ed.), Alternatives to Deforestation: Steps Toward the Sustainable Use of Amazon Rain Forest. Columbia University Press, NY.

Peters, C.M., A. Gentry, and R. Mendelsohn, 1989. Valuation of a tropical forest in Peruvian Amazonia. Nature 339:665-657.

Peters, C.M. 1999. Ecological research for sustainable non-wood forest product exploitation: an overview, pp. 19-35 in T.C.H. Sunderland, L.E. Clark, and P. Vantomme (eds.), Non-Wood Forest Products of Central Africa: Current Research Issues and Prospects for Conservation and Development. FAO, Rome.

Ashton, M.S. and C.M. Peters. 1999. Even-aged silviculture in tropical rainforests of Asia: lessons learned and myths perpetuated. Journal of Forestry 97: 14-19.

Peters, C.M. 1996. The Ecology and Management of Non-timber Tropical Forest Resources. World Bank Technical Paper No. 322, The World Bank, Washington.

Peters, C.M. 1996. Beyond nomenclature and use: a review of ecological methods for ethnobotanists. Advances in Economic Botany 10:241-276.

Peters, C.M. 1997. Sustainable use of biodiversity: myths, reality, and potential, pp. 312-333 in F. Grifo and J. Rosenthal (eds.), Biodiversity and Human Health, Island Press.