Resources ffrom CCEESP mmembers

BBill Adams has once again challenged and

strengthened conservation’s cause with his lat-

est book. Building on the success of previous

publications on environmental strategies in the

North and South (Adams 1996; Adams 2001)

this book tells a story as yet remarkably

untold– that of western conservation in the

twentieth century. “Western” conservation, of

course, happens in many other places apart

from the West, and Adams is principally con-

cerned with Africa, the UK and USA. His focus

is the activities of what is now called Fauna

and Flora International and the volume is also

a contribution to the FFI’s centenary.

Against Extinctioncharts the rise and diverse

experience of different strongholds of conser-

vation— protected areas and species preserva-

tion. It also examines newer trends in conser-

vation activity including attempts to make pro-

tected areas locally popular and to raise rev-

enue from sustainable harvests, as well as the

origins of conservation activity in hunting and

international lobbying, from the early days of

the Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of

the Empire to the international debates about sustainable development.

It is the final chapter which deserves special mention. It is here that Adams concentrates on

what he would like to see conservation doing, and in particularly doing differently. Here are

the strongest challenges for the conservation movement. Adams advocates recognizing that

nature is a ‘social construction’, as well as recognizing the diversity of human engagements

with nature (page 233-4). His most powerful plea is “not to preserve... ‘the wild’, but peo-

Against EExtinction—

The sstory oof cconservation

By WWilliam MM. AAdams, EEarthscan aand FFauna aand

Flora IInternational, LLondon aand SSterling

(Virginia,USA), 22004. 3311 pp.

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