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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