John was born and educated in Gibraltar. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Zoology from the University of Wales, and has a D.Phil. in Animal Ecology from the University of Oxford. After completing his D.Phil., John spent until 1990 working at the Mexican National Univeristy, Mexico City, and as an environmental expert in the Gibraltar Government until 1993. Since then, he held various responsibility posts at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Jersey, ending in December 2013. Currently, John is Professor of Biodiversity and Human Development at Manchester Metropolitan University and Senior Associate at the Center for International Center for International Forestry Research in Bogor, Indonesia. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Universidad de Malaga, Spain. John’s research embraces biology, economics, anthropology, and development. He has projects in Africa and South America which pursue a wide variety of global biodiversity issues – defaunation of tropical rainforests, food security, indigenous peoples and the impact of diseases on wildlife and humans. John has over 200 peer-reviewed publications and 9 books in his name, has led numerous research projects in different parts of the world. He also teaches in a number of courses in academic institutions in the UK, Europe, Africa and Latin American countries.