History, cculture aand cconservation
ples’ relationshipswith the wild” (page
235 original emphasis). His call is to move
away from focusing on wilderness and
pristineness, and to seek renewed con-
nections with nature and natural process-
es, even in mundane landscapes, that
could form the bedrock of a stronger con-
servation movement. If nature is confined
only to special places then engagement
with it will be shallow, short and superfi-
cial for most of us.
Some conservationists might hold that to
be a counsel of despair, a succumbing
acceptance of a marred world. It is not.
This is a bolder agenda than merely draw-
ing lines in the sand around protected
areas. This is about changing the way
industrial and post-industrial society
relates to nature, and ultimately, per-
ceives itself. These arguments are all the
more important given that they may be
too late. People already relate to nature
through the categories presented to them.
Some of the strongest debates about
nature in the west are those which seek
to preserve categorised wilderness from
human use. The Disneyficationof nature
and wilderness has been successful, and
is now working out the ramifications of its
success in western society (Adams 2003;
Igoe 2003). Similarly few contend that the
images of wild Africa sustaining conserva-
tion are not mythical, yet these stories
still work, raising billions of dollars for
conservation organisations (Brockington,
2002).
This is a brave book, for it is bound to
challenge most of its readers, and offend
others. Adams does not dilute the ill-
effects of conservation practice. He has
no time for the strongly protectionist
arguments of Terborgh (‘ecofascism’ –
page 223). Nor does he bow to fashion-
able, but unsupportable, notions that
there is no crisis, that protected areas
have been superseded, or that community
conservation provides the answer. Adams
tries to please neither radical critics of
conservation nor traditional conservation-
ists. In telling this history he denies
aspects of both sides with his usual elo-
quent prose. Few readers, therefore, will
find comfort here. Nor should anyone
expect to, for the story of conservation, of
its rise and ‘nature’s decline’ (page 231)
cannot make comfortable reading. It is
precisely because it requires confrontation
that this is essential reading.
Works quoted:
Adams, W. A. “Nature and the colonial
mind” in Adams W. A. and M. Mulligan,
Decolonizing Nature. Strategies for
Conservation in a Post-Colonial Era,
Earthscan, London, 2003.
Adams, W. M., Future Nature: a vision for
conservation, Earthscan London, 1996.
Adams, W. M., Green Development,
Routledge, London, 2001.
Brockington, D., Fortress Conservation.
The preservation of the Mkomazi Game
Reserve, Tanzania, James Currey,
Oxford (UK), 2002.
Igoe, J., Conservation and Globalisation: a
study of national parks and indigenous
communities from East Africa to South
Dakota, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning,
Belmont (California, USA) 2003.
Dan Brockington
([email protected]) works in the
School of Geography and the Environment at the
University of Oxford. He trained as an anthropolo-
gist, working around the Mkomazi Game Reserve
between 1994 and 1996 and for 18 months in
Rukwa, in southern Tanzania. Bill Adams
([email protected]) is Reader in Conservation and
Development at the University of Cambridge. Dan
and Bill are members of CEESP/CMWG.
