Game Changer Animal Rights and the Fate of Africas Wildlife [Hardcover]

Are conservation and protecting animals the same thing? InGame Changer, award-winning environmental reporter Glen Martin takes a fresh look at this question as it applies to Africas 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 speciesincluding elephants and lionsthat 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 worlds last great populations of wildlife have become the hostages in a fight between those who love animals and those who would save them.

Glen Martinis the author ofNational Geographics Guide to Wildlife Watching: 100 of the Best Places in America to See Animals in their Natural Habitatand coauthor (with Jay Stuller) ofThrough the Grapevine: The Real Story Behind Americas $8 Billion Wine Industry.

How best to preserve biological diversity and protect endangered species drives the conservation impulse on every continent, but none more so than Africa. InGame ChangerGlen Martin plunges bravely into the center of a scalding scientific debate and without sentiment or prejudice reveals and lauds what works on the world's most biodiverse continent, while exposing the destructive romanticism, inchoate philosophy, and outright idiocy that is steering so many contemporary wildlife conservation efforts toward failure. Mark Dowie, author ofConservation Refugees: The lÓ)