Synopses & Reviews
Tropical deforestation. The collapse of fisheries. Unprecedented levels of species extinction. Faced with the plethora of gloom-and-doom headlines about the natural world, we might think that environmental disaster is inevitable. But is there any good news about the environment? Yes, there is, answers Andrew Balmford in Wild Hope, and he offers several powerful stories of successful conservation to prove it. This tragedy is still avoidable, and there are many reasons for hope if we find inspiration in stories of effective environmental recovery.and#160;Wild Hope is organized geographically, with each chapter taking readers to extraordinary places to meet conservationand#8217;s heroes and foot soldiersand#8212;and to discover the new ideas they are generating about how to make conservation work on our hungry and crowded planet. The journey starts in the floodplains of Assam, where dedicated rangers and exceptionally tolerant villagers have together helped bring Indian rhinos back from the brink of extinction. In the pine forests of the Carolinas, we learn why plantation owners came to resent rare woodpeckersand#8212;and what persuaded them to change their minds. In South Africa, Balmford investigates how invading alien plants have been drinking the country dry, and how the Southern Hemisphereand#8217;s biggest conservation program is now simultaneously restoring the rivers, saving species, and creating tens of thousands of jobs. The conservation problems Balmford encounters are as diverse as the people and their actions, but together they offer common themes and specific lessons on how to win the battle of conservationand#8212;and the one essential ingredient, Balmford shows, is most definitely hope.and#160;Wild Hope, though optimistic, is a clear-eyed view of the difficulties and challenges of conservation. Balmford is fully aware of failed conservation efforts and systematic flaws that make conservation difficult, but he offers here innovative solutions and powerful stories of citizens, governments, and corporations coming together to implement them. A global tour of people and programs working for the planet, Wild Hope is an emboldening green journey.
Review
and#8220;Along the course of a graceful and nuanced journey through the complex world of conservation, Andrew Balmford lovingly tells us about a number of highly positive examples of conservation as practiced in a series ofand#160;far-flung lands, inspiring and encouraging us to continue building a sustainable worldand#8212;one in which we will coexist sustainably with nature, nurturing the beauty of our glorious planet and the opportunities that it presents for all.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This is an unusual book within its genre.and#160; Whilst recognizing the huge acceleration in extinction rates, caused by human activities over the past few centuries, it gives an analytic accountand#8212;region by regionand#8212;of growing numbers of successful conservation actions in recent years.and#160; It is a very important book, by a very knowledgeable author.and#160; Read it.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Andrew Balmford provides a little of what we need a lot more of: stories of whatand#8217;s working. By cleverly choosing different kinds of successes, Balmford shows us that there are many ways to save a cat, so to speak. He also shows that people need incentives. Happily as this book illustrates, conservation has many forms of incentive from which to choose the next successful strategies.and#8221;
Review
"Through a series of anecdotes and interviews transmuted into his own first person account, Andrew Balmford makes apparent that the people who have dedicated their lives to saving the environment are just as important as the rich and dynamic habitats they seek to preserve. Never slow and not at all preachy,
Wild Hope is self-aware and decidedly accessible in a way seldom seen in todayand#8217;s conservationist discourse."
Review
"Be thankful for that leafy shade from the hot sun, and be thankful for Andrew Balmford's bookand#8212;a collection of encouraging stories about efforts to protect the natural world."
Review
and#8220;Balmford is an astute analyst of just why it works in some places and not in others.
Wild Hope will doubtless be taken by many conservation professionals, as well as students, as a textbook. At its close he distils his perceptions into seven and#8216;ways to win battlesand#8217; which include, tellingly, not letting the best be the enemy of the good. . . . While human beings are destroying this planet, our only home, human beings are also trying to save it, and this offers at least a glimmer of the hope in this moving bookand#8217;s title.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;While exercising level-headed optimism at their successes, Andrew Balmford still emphasizes their current struggles and future potential challenges. However, hope is the common thread that binds these projects together and, with each story, it becomes clear that their examples are meant to be admired, justifiably so.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Wild Hope provides neither an easy nor a hard solution for best safeguarding biodiversity. Conservation, we learn, succeeds by doing just what works. Balmfordand#8217;s . . . sincerely impassioned, response makes more neurons fire in the region of the heart than in the head. Nonetheless, perhaps that is just the muscle needed for protecting nature.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;In
Wild Hope, Andrew Balmford . . . aims to provide grounds for cautious optimism by detailing seven cases of improvement and seeking lessons and commonalities among them that might be more widely applied. The key feature that unifies Balmfordand#8217;s examples is the need to understand conservation conflicts from the point of view of the human actors involved, then to fashion a response that engages all sides.and#8221;
Review
"In beautiful prose, Andrew Balmford takes us on an expedition to six continents where he interviews the people behind the successes and comes up withand#160;their defining characteristics. People are ultimately responsible for destroying nature through overharvesting, direct destruction, and toxification, but people are also those who can, and must, reverse the decline."
Review
and#8220;Amid a steady stream of books with disturbing news of habitat degradation and biodiversity loss,
Wild Hope stands out by offering good news and models for a way forward. . . . The book is exceptional for its depiction of enlightened management and as an antidote to despair. Highly recommended.and#8221;
Review
"Andrew Balmford, who is a professor of conservation at Cambridge University, writes beautifully, but more important still, he sees his whole subject as if from a great height. The book is episodic in structure, as he investigates one project after another, and disparate in its sense of geography and scale, as he moves from a town-based afforestation scheme in Ecuador to multi-billion-dollar government programmes in Europe. Yet he is able to weave the various narratives into a single vision. He is also deeply alive to the balance we need to strike between hope on the one hand, and awareness of the hard facts on the other."
Review
andldquo;There is only one Craig Packer; he ploughs his own furrow. Packerandrsquo;s work on lions and the Serengeti ecosystem . . . and his confrontations with officialdom will be familiar to most who have worked with (or read of) wildlife and conservation in Africa, but the Savannas Forever program was uniquely ambitious. Packer tells its story with unusual candor, laying out the facts, pulling no punches, revealing the corruption he observed in his dealings with the hunting fraternity in Tanzaniaandmdash;both among the operators themselves, and at all levels of government. Specific incidences are cited; the names of those involved are given. . . . The writing is highly commendable (even enviable!), the science and personal experience episodes beautifully done. I know of no other book likeandnbsp;Lions in the Balance.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The King of Beasts is in trouble throughout Africa as this hard-headed, clear-eyed book makes unmistakable.andnbsp;Explosive human population growth in the lionandrsquo;s habitat, conversion of wild lands into fields, corrupt government officials, unscrupulous overharvest by trophy hunters, illegal killing with gun, poison, and spear, lion bones smuggled to Asiaandmdash;the litany of woe goes on and on. Craig Packer and his coworkers studied lions in the Serengeti region and other parts of Tanzania, adding immeasurably to our knowledge of this magnificent cat.andnbsp;But they also took on the moral task of protecting lions and helping them endure. This stirring book, written with candor and wry humor, should be read by everyone interested in wildlife, as well as concerned about the impact of politics on conservation and the future of our natural treasures.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;As he exposes corruption in Tanzaniaandrsquo;s hunting industry and tries to get his plan adopted, diary entries show Packer and his colleagues taking on locals, hunters and megalomaniac politicians in a struggle to balance human needs, a lucrative hunting trade and true Serengeti science. His brave accounts of blackmail and death threats are alarming. . . . The book makes compelling reading as we journey through pioneering science, dodging the influential government fat cats on the way. Packer is completely candid about the andlsquo;ethicsandrsquo; of those instrumental in the future of the King of the Beasts. Letandrsquo;s hope someone will listen.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A fast-paced, detailed inside look at the politics of lion conservation, the often corrupt big-game hunting fraternity, and Tanzanian government.andrdquo;
Synopsis
The Serengeti is one of the worldand#8217;s most renowned ecosystems, and at its apex prowls the Serengeti Lion.and#160; These majestic mammals are iconic, and integral, and also in constant danger from encroaching humans.and#160; Craig Packer is among the unique species that has spent a lifetime ensuring the study and perpetuity of these dark maned cats.and#160; He has dedicated countless research hours and dollars to the coexistence of humans and wildlife in the Serengeti.and#160; He has even proposed ways of using lion hunting to ensure their value, and hence their protection.and#160;
Lions in the Balance takes us into the red-in-tooth-and-claw world of lion conservation.and#160; It is an incredibly candid, entertaining, and at points alarming look at what the future of the Serengeti lions entails, and how the politics of conservation require survival strategies far more creative and powerful than what animals (humans included) on the savannas must possess.
A sequel to Mr. Packerand#8217;s Into Africa, this diary based chronicle of the past decade draws readers along the dusty trails and into the spectacular sunsets of the Serengeti. Through his experiences we learn that female lions prefer their male manes dark and long, that lion attacks on humans most commonly occur during the full moon cycles, and that citizen science is shaping the worldand#151;Packerand#8217;s initiative Snapshot Serengeti hasand#160; helped engage globally, and locally, and has identified thousands of images of the Serengeti.and#160; The narrative moves from Arusha to the Serengeti to Washington DC, and with some temporal hopping, as often the stories are as rich and multilayered as the Serengeti ecosystem. And Mr. Packer demonstrates that he possesses himself a bit of cat, having needed nearly nine lives to persist in the ever dynamic and vexed world of conservation in Africa.
Synopsis
From flat-topped acacia trees to great migrations of wildebeest across an edgeless expanse of grass, the Serengeti is one of the worldandrsquo;s most renowned ecosystems. And at the apex of this incredible landscape prowls its seemingly indomitable ruler: the Serengeti lion. These majestic mammals are skillful hunters, iconic, and integral to Serengeti health. But they also commit infanticide, eat local people and destroy local livelihoods, are a source of profit for those who make money shooting or conserving them (and sometimes both), and are in constant danger from the encroachments of another species: humans.
With Lions in the Balance, celebrated lion researcher and conservationist Craig Packer takes us back into the complex, tooth-and-claw worlds of lion conservation and behavior. A sequel to Packerandrsquo;s Into Africaandmdash;which gave many readers their first experience of field work in Africa, of Tanzanian roads, of long hours spent identifying lions by their ear marks and scars, and of the joys of bootlegged Grateful Dead tapes beneath savannah moonsandmdash;this diary-based chronicle of adventure, real-life danger, and corruption will both alarm and entertain. Packerandrsquo;s story offers a look into the future of the lion, one in which the politics of conservation will require survival strategies far more creative and powerful than any now possessed by the citizens of the savannahandmdash;humans included.
Packer is sure to infuriate poachers, politicians, and conservationists alike as he minces no words about the problems he sees. But with a narrative stretching from Arusha to Washington, DC, and marked by Packerandrsquo;s signature humor and incredible candor, Lions in the Balance is a tale of courage against impossible odds, a masterly blend of science and storytelling, and an urgent call to action that will captivate a pride of readers.
Synopsis
If you are a morani (warrior
), you have your spear at the readyandmdash;you could be the hero, but you will have to wait until the morning light before you can go out and prove yourself. If it is a lion, you want to be the first to spear itandmdash;and if the lion turns on you, make sure it mauls you on your chest or stomach, on your face, shins, or throat. Any place where you can show your scars with pride, show the incontrovertible evidence of courage. A scar on your back would be a permanent reminder of cowardice, an ineradicable trace of shame. and#160;
Monsters take many forms: from man-eating lions to the people who hunt them, from armed robbers to that midnight knock at the door of a cheap hotel room in Dar es Salaam. And celebrated biologist Craig Packer has faced them all. Head on.
With Lions in the Balance, Packer takes us back into the complex, tooth-and-claw world of the African lion, offering revealing insights into both the lives of one of the most iconic and dangerous animals on earth and the very real risks of protecting them. A sequel to his prize-winning Into Africaandmdash;which gave many readers their first experience of fieldwork in Africa, of cooperative lions on dusty savannas, and political kidnappings on the shores of Lake Tanganyikaandmdash;this new diary-based chronicle of cutting-edge research and heartbreaking corruption will both alarm and entertain. Packerandrsquo;s story offers a look into the future of the lion, one in which the politics of conservation will require survival strategies far more creative and powerful than those practiced anywhere in the world today.
Packer is sure to infuriate millionaires, politicians, aid agencies, and conservationists alike as he minces no words about the problems he encounters. But with a narrative stretching from far flung parts of Africa to the corridors of power in Washington, DC, and marked by Packerandrsquo;s signature humor and incredible candor, Lions in the Balance is a tale of courage against impossible odds, a masterly blend of science, adventure, and storytelling, and an urgent call to action that will captivate a new generation of readers.
About the Author
Andrew Balmford is professor of conservation science in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. He is coeditor of Conservation in a Changing World, and he lives in Ely, England, with his wife, two sons, and a lot of animals.
Table of Contents
1. The Glass Half Empty
2. Guarding the Unicorn: Conservation at the Sharp End
3. Ending the Woodpecker Wars
4. Problem Plants, Politics, and Poverty
5. Rewilding Goes Dutch
6. Seeing the Good from the Trees
7. The Greening of a Giant
8. Fishing for a Future
9. The Glass Half Full
Appendix. Stemming the Loss (Or What We Can All Do to Save Nature)
Acknowledgments
References