Jorge Miguel Pérez Vela

A native of Yurimaguas, Peru, he received his degree in forestry engineering from the National University of the Peruvian Amazon and a master's degree in Soils from the National Agrarian University La Molina, Lima. He is currently a doctoral student in Vegetal Production and Agroforestry Systems at the Universidad Nacional de San Martin, Tarapoto.

He worked as an agroforestry research assistant in the "Tropical Soils" project at North Carolina State University, USA. He established plantations of Bactris gasipaes (pijuayo) for palm heart production in Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. He also established timber plantations using agroforestry methods.

He teaches at the universities of the Peruvian Amazon and the Autonomous University of Alto Amazonas. He has been invited by the universities of San Martín, Peru; San Paulo, Brazil; and the Spanish universities Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, and Castilla-la Mancha, in Ciudad Real and Toledo, Spain.

Today he serves as research director at the Center for Research, Teaching and Agroforestry Production (CEPIAGRY-Yurimaguas) and regional articulator in Loreto with Viridis Terra Peru.