Michael P. Gilmore

Dr. Michael P. Gilmore is an Associate Professor in George Mason University’s School of Integrative Studies.

Gilmore is an ethnobiologist with over twenty years of experience working with the Maijuna indigenous group of the Peruvian Amazon on community-based biocultural conservation projects and has a deep appreciation and understanding of their traditional culture and ancestral lands. He has published many peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals spanning the fields of ethnobiology, geography, ecology, and policy. He is also the producer of the award-winning documentary film Guardians of the Forest (2020), which chronicles the Maijuna people’s fight for their biologically rich ancestral lands and cultural survival.

Gilmore developed and regularly co-teaches “Conservation and Sustainability of the Amazon Rainforest,” a field course that takes place in Maijuna lands. In addition to his work at George Mason University, Gilmore founded and is president of OnePlanet, a non-profit organization that partners with the Maijuna.

Author photo: Wilfredo Martinez