This book provides a new inter-disciplinary look at the practice and policies of conservation in Africa. Bringing together social scientists, anthropologists and historians with biologists for the first time, the book sheds some light on the previously neglected but critically important social aspects of conservation thinking. To date conservation has been very much 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 new approach to conservation, the book argues, cannot deal simply with the survival of species and habitats, for the future of African wildlife is intimately tied to the future of African rural communities. Conservation must form an integral part of future policies for human development. The book emphasises this urgent need for a complementary rather than a competitive approach. It covers a wide range of topics important to this new approach, from wildlife management to soil conservation and from the Cape in the nineteenth century to Ethiopia in the 1980s. It 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.’

Source: Journal of African History

‘This book heralds what should become the new era of conservation practice in Africa … an important contribution to conservation literature.’

Source: African Affairs