Christian J. Rivera

Urban Ecology & Conservation Science

The Rivera Lab

Welcome to the Urban Ecology and Conservation Lab at UMass Boston

We integrate approaches in the natural and social sciences towards the conservation of biodiversity in a rapidly urbanizing world.

Wildlife in captive and semi-captive settings in the city of Iquitos, Peru, from a recent study on tourism and human-wildlife interactions in the urbanizing Amazon.

LAB NEWS

3/13/2026: Our new paper, “Teaching the Wildlife Trade: A Social-Ecological Systems Approach“, was published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. This article is a report of a course I developed and taught at Princeton University and which I plan to teach at UMass Boston’s School for the Environment in the future. The wildlife trade is a “wicked” problem. Understanding it calls for applying the tools of systems thinking and drawing from diverse disciplines including conservation biology, criminology, and anthropology. The article was co-authored by four of the former undergraduate students in the class. Their contributions resulted in key insights that would have been overlooked if presented solely by the instructor!

1/20/2026: Congrats to Marquez C. White (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University ’24) on his paper “Factors influencing survival of rescued Amazonian manatees (Trichechus inunguis) during clinical rehabilitation in Peru“, published in the journal Conservation Science and Practice! This research is part of a collaboration with our local partners at the Amazon Rescue Center (CREA – Centro de Rescate Amazónico) in Iquitos, Peru. This study is the first to characterize factors associated with survival during the clinical phase of rehabilitation for imperiled Amazonian manatees at a wildlife rescue center.

12/7/25: Our new paper titled “A Framework to Analyze Primate Species Vulnerability to Trade in Urban Markets” was published in the American Journal of Primatology, the leading journal in the field of primatology. In this paper, we integrate concepts in primatology and conservation criminology to develop a framework that relates primate characteristics to supply- and demand-side variables. This tool is both explanatory and predictive and can be used to better understand why certain species of primates may be observed in urban markets over others. Check out the open-access paper here!

9/1/25: After three years as an Environmental Research and Teaching Fellow at Princeton University’s High Meadows Environmental Institute, Christian Rivera starts a new position as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the School for the Environment at the University of Massachusetts Boston.