Game Changer: Animal Rights and the Fate of Africa's Wildlife

by Glen Martin

Overview

Are conservation and protecting animals the same thing? In Game Changer, award-winning environmental reporter Glen Martin takes a fresh look at this question as it applies to Africa’s megafauna. Martin assesses the rising influence of the animal rights movement and finds that the policies championed by animal welfare groups could lead paradoxically to the elimination of the very species—including elephants and lions—that are the most cherished. In his anecdotal and highly engaging style, Martin takes readers to the heart of the conflict. He revisits the debate between conservationists, who believe that people whose lives are directly impacted by the creation of national parks and preserves should be compensated, versus those who believe that restrictive protection that forbids hunting is the most effective way to conserve wildlife and habitats. Focusing on the different approaches taken by Kenya, Tanzania, and Namibia, Martin vividly shows how the world’s last great populations of wildlife have become the hostages in a fight between those who love animals and those who would save them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520266261
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/30/2012
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Glen Martin is the author of National Geographic’s Guide to Wildlife Watching: 100 of the Best Places in America to See Animals in their Natural Habitat and coauthor (with Jay Stuller) of Through the Grapevine: The Real Story Behind America’s $8 Billion Wine Industry.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Maps

1. Never an Eden
2. The Man Who Hated Hyenas
3. Dreaming the Peaceable Kingdom
4. From Automata to Sentient Beings
5. My Cow Trumps Your Lion
6. Death to L’Ancien Régime
7. Reality Check
8. The Kenya Model
9. An Inalienable Right
10. Buy (or Lease) It and They Will Come
11. Even the Cows Must Pay
12. Elephant Man
13. The Sage Reconsiders
14. Commodifying Conservation
15. Not a Primary Issue of Concern
16. Hard Choices
17. The Nation on a Plate
18. Topsoil and Condoms
19. Summing Up in Diani

Recommended Reading
Acknowledgments
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Martin builds a convincing case. . . . But the real value of Martin's book is in showing how hard it is to find any conservation strategy that works in the complex reality of today's Africa. . . . Walking the fine line between unregulated killing and managed hunting will not be easy but, Martin concludes, it may be the only hope for Africa's wild creatures."—New Scientist

"Africa's wild megafauna are caught in the crossfire between animal-welfare campaigners and conservationists. . . .
In this pacy, unsentimental account, Martin . . . points out that measures such as ecotourism and protection for iconic species have backfired dramatically."—Nature (2)

"The real value of Martin's book is in showing how hard it is to find any strategy that works in . . . today's Africa."—New Scientist

"Martin's work incisively probes complexities most wildlife lovers have likely never considered, but urgently need to, before some of their beloved species utterly disappear from the earth."—Booklist

"A perceptive if partisan examination of a continent-wide controversy over how best to preserve Africa's amazing wildlife heritage."—San Francisco Chronicle

Editorial Reviews

In this nuanced investigation into the health and future of East African wildlife, Martin (National Geographic’s Guide to Wildlife Watching) explores the conflict between traditional wildlife conservationists—“dispassionate, data-driven, focused on habitat and suites of species”—and “New Environmentalism,” which focuses on “the inherent rights of the individual animal.” Through interviews, Martin finds that the essential dispute lies in the old line conservationists’ views that to save the wildlife, “game that can be taken without affecting base populations should be taken, with the proceeds…going to local people,” whereas animal rights proponents like James Isiche, the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s director for East Africa, promote hunting bans and ecotourism. But whether in Kenya, where the hunting ban is undermined by rampant poaching and illegal trading and development associated with ecotourism results in degradation of ecosystems, or Tanzania, where both trophy hunting and subsistence hunting are contributing to game decline, corruption, lack of enforcement, and overpopulation overwhelm the merits of either approach. Meanwhile, biometrition Lyman McDonald concludes that without controlling population growth and overgrazing of cattle, conservation is doomed to fail. Because big families and wealth measured by livestock are key elements of rural life, massive cultural change may be African megafauna’s only hope for long-term survival in the wild. Photos. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

A perceptive if partisan examination of a continent-wide controversy over how best to preserve Africa's amazing wildlife heritage.

San Francisco Chronicle

Highly engaging and colorful in style . . . excitingly displayed evidence.

African Indaba - Johannes Siege

This book is an important contribution to the debate on wildlife conservation in Africa and needs to be widely read.

IUCN SULInews - D. H. M. Cumming

Africa’s wild megafauna are caught in the crossfire between animal-welfare campaigners and conservationists. . . . In this pacy, unsentimental account, Martin . . . points out that measures such as ecotourism and protection for iconic species have backfired dramatically.

Nature (2)

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in African wildlife conservation.

Sports Afield Magazine - Diana Rupp

Martin’s work incisively probes complexities most wildlife lovers have likely never considered, but urgently need to, before some of their beloved species utterly disappear from the earth.

Booklist - Carl Hays

Martin builds a convincing case. . . . But the real value of Martin’s book is in showing how hard it is to find any conservation strategy that works in the complex reality of today’s Africa. . . . Walking the fine line between unregulated killing and managed hunting will not be easy but, Martin concludes, it may be the only hope for Africa’s wild creatures.

New Scientist - Bob Holmes

“A perceptive if partisan examination of a continent-wide controversy over how best to preserve Africa's amazing wildlife heritage.

San Francisco Chronicle