Conservation in Africa: Peoples, Policies and Practice

Description

A new, interdisciplinary look at the practices and policies of conservation in Africa is presented in this volume. For the first time social scientists, anthropologists, and historians have been brought together with biologists, in order to illuminate previously neglected yet critically important social aspects of conservation thinking. The book is introduced by an overview of African conservation in the past, present, and future. There are sixteen papers on a wide range of topics from wildlife management to soil conservation, and from the Cape in the nineteenth century to Ethiopia in the 1980s. These collectively show that conservation must form an integral part of future policies for human development. To date, conservation has been largely the domain of the biologist, but the current ecological crisis in Africa and the failure of orthodox conservation policies demand a radical new appraisal of conventional practices. This, therefore, is essential reading for all those concerned about people and conservation in Africa.

'The main achievement of this volume is in giving us a more comprehensive account than we have hitherto possessed of European conservation ideologies and their place in the colonial history of Africa. It is impossible in a short review to do justice to the many excellent papers here. This is a very valuable book.' Journal of African History 'This book heralds what should become the new era of conservation practice in Africa ... an important contribution to conservation literature.' African Affairs