Against Extinction: The Story of Conservation: The Past and Future of Conservation Book

* From hunting to national parks, it asks and answers the big questions about why we have struggled, and continue to struggle, to conserve nature* Looks to the future and suggests a new course for conservation in the 21st century* Essential reading for conservationists, ecologists, park and natural resource managers, tourism practitioners, and students and scholars The story of conservation from its origins in 1903, when the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire was founded in London, to the present day in which it has become a huge international enterprise. Yet this book is not simply an account of what happened, but rather it is about why it happened. "Against Extinction" is, above all, about the big questions and ideas that have driven conservation for a century. How can the diversity of life be maintained as human demands on the earth expand seemingly without end? How can you reconcile preservation with human rights and the development needs of the poor? Is conservation something that needs to be imposed on people, or is it only something that emerges from people's free choice? These have never been easy questions and the answers, as Adams reveals, have been even more difficult.Read More