José Márcio Ayres

José Márcio Corrêa Ayres (February 21, 1954 – March 7, 2003) was a Brazilian primatologist and conservationist who founded the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in 1996, followed by the Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve in 1998.[4] The two reserves are located in the central region of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, and are joined to adjacent Jaú National Park to form a corridor spanning over 20,000 square miles (52,000 km²) of protected rainforest.[5]

José Márcio Ayres
José Márcio Ayres in 2002
Born	José Márcio Corrêa Ayres (1954-02-21)February 21, 1954 Belém, Brazil
Died	March 7, 2003(2003-03-07) (aged 49) New York City, United States
Alma mater	University of São Paulo National Institute of Amazonian Research Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Known for	Amazon conservation
Awards	WWF Gold Medal [1] Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico[2] Rolex Awards for Enterprise[3]
Scientific career
Fields	Conservation biology Primatology
Institutions	Mamirauá Institute Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi Wildlife Conservation Society
Thesis	Uakaris and Amazonian flooded forest (1986)
Academic advisors	David J. Chivers Paulo Vanzolini
Notable students	Hélder Queiroz

Ayres devoted his life to the preservation of the unique biota and ecosystems of the Amazon, as well as to developing a method by which rural dwellers would benefit from the conservation of natural resources.[6] He realized that the uakari monkeys he had been studying for his doctoral thesis would stand no chance of survival unless new community-based models of natural resource management were applied to the much exploited Amazon river basin.[7]

Ayres' doctorate in primatology at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge in 1986 was for his thesis Uakaris and Amazonian flooded forest, the field work for which was undertaken on the upper Amazon River floodplain, near Tefé.[8]

Ayres died of lung cancer in 2003 at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, United States.[4]

Selected publications

• Ayres, José Márcio (1993). As Matas de Várzea do Mamirauá (in Portuguese). CNPq: Sociedade Civil Mamirauá.
• Ayres, J.M. (1985). "On a new species of squirrel monkey, genus Saimiri, from Brazilian Amazonia (Primates, Cebidae)" (PDF). Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia. 36: 147–164.
• Ayres, J.M. (1989). "Comparative feeding ecology of the Uakari and Bearded Saki, Cacajao and Chiropotes". Journal of Human Evolution. 18: 697–716. doi:10.1016/0047-2484(89)90101-2.
• Ayres, J.M.; Clutton-Brock, T.H. (1992). "River Boundaries and Species Range Size in Amazonian Primates". The American Naturalist. 140: 531–537. doi:10.1086/285427. PMID 19426056.
• Mittermeier, R.A.; Schwarz, M.; Ayres, J.M. (1992). "A new species of marmoset, genus Callithrix Erxleben, 1777 (Callitrichidae, Primates) from the Rio Maués region, state of Amazonas, central Brazilian Amazonia". Goeldiana Zoologia. 14: 1–17.
• Pimm, Stuart L.; Ayres, Márcio; Balmford, Andrew; et al. (2001). "Can We Defy Nature's End?" (PDF). Science. 293: 2207–8. doi:10.1126/science.1061626. PMID 11567124.

References

1. "The Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Medal". WWF. Archived from the original on 2014-07-25.
2. "Membros da Ordem Falecidos". Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
3. "An Amazonian legacy". Rolex Awards.
4. Saxon, Wolfgang (March 11, 2003). "José Márcio Ayres Dies at 49; Saved Heart of the Amazon". The New York Times.
5. "Central Amazon Conservation Complex". UNESCO World Heritage Centre.
6. Lima, Deborah (2011). "The Contribution of Márcio Ayres to a Transdisciplinary Approach to Conservation". In Pinedo-Vasquez, Miguel; Ruffino, Mauro L.; Padoch, Christine; Brondízio, Eduardo S. (eds.). The Amazon Várzea. Springer. ISBN 978-94-007-0145-8.
7. Ayres, J.M. (1986). "The conservation status of the white uakari" (PDF). Primate Conservation.
8. Ayres, J.M.C. (1986). Uakaris and Amazonian flooded forest (Ph.D.). University of Cambridge. doi:10.17863/CAM.7138.

External sources

• Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development