At the Hand of Man: Peril and Hope for Africa's Wildlife

Ray Bonner is straight on with this book.Even though it was written in 1992 - the same issues, conflicts and concerns are as current today as they were then. The debate over how to manage wildlife and protect it, is the same arguements that Bonner has brought to light in this book, I still hear today. Having been born and raised in East Africa, lived extensively around wildlife all of my life, Ray Bonner has brought out the complexities of managing wildlife in a land with a large number of hungry, poor people and an expanding population. Often our family were called to help control wildlife such as hippos raiding crops nightly, elephant destroying small farms (often the whole food supply for the year!), maneating lion, stock killing leopard. I witnessed the deaths of local African people by elephant or buffalo, and understand Bonners findings why locals teach their children that "elephants are bad - they kill me". Bonner is great at bringing this "other side" to the table. He is looking at it from the African's point of view. His finding is correct that the International organizations, AWF and WWF, sit in their offices far removed from the daily issues of the African, control the purse strings and impose their visions of how the Africans will manage their resources and wildlife.Most of the decisions makers have never lived in the shoes of Africans, around wildlife. He shows that such organizations, arrive and rather than ask what do you think you need help with, the locals are told, this is what you will do. The points he makes that these organizations think "wildlife first" and people "second" is so valid - though in 2006, there is at least some thinking with newer and younger organizations that, "wildlife