Co-founder/ President Emeritus

Peter and Miranda Harris founded A Rocha in 1983. In October 2019, Peter and Miranda, along with their colleagues Chris and Susanna Naylor, were in a horrific road accident while on a work trip in South Africa. Only Peter and the driver survived. He has spoken about life since in this short film. At the end of May 2020, Peter retired and continues to serve A Rocha in a voluntary capacity.

After working as an English teacher at Christ’s Hospital, and then as an Anglican clergyman near Liverpool, UK, Peter and his wife Miranda moved to Portugal in 1983 to establish and run A Rocha’s first field study centre and bird observatory. In 1995 the work was given over to national leadership and they moved to France where together with national colleagues they oversaw the establishment of two other centres while travelling to resource the growing movement of Christians active in nature conservation. Peter and Miranda returned to the UK in 2010. The A Rocha story is told in Peter’s first two books: Under the Bright Wings (Regent College Publishing, 2000), and Kingfisher’s Fire (Monarch, 2008). 

His 2017 book with Rod Wilson, Keeping Faith in Fundraising (Eerdmans, 2017) raises questions about the nature of philanthropy and fundraising in contemporary culture.  Peter writes: “I often meet with entrepreneurs, investors and conservation leaders, trying to develop ways to create jobs and wealth and improve the environment instead of over-exploiting it.  In poverty relief, business models are beginning to take some of the strain off philanthropy, but as conservationists we are only just beginning to exploit exciting new opportunities. I think I’ve got the best job in the world because I get to meet so many remarkable people. It is also a privilege to talk frequently about our Christian approach to conservation with many across a wide range of backgrounds. I couldn’t do my job without Christian hope.  Despite all the environmental devastation which I’ve witnessed, I believe that God loves his world, and that will inspire great things short term and renew everything in the end.”

Watch a video of Peter speaking at the high-level session, ‘Connections: Spirituality and Conservation’ (5 September), IUCN World Conservation Congress, Hawai’i 2016.