Conservation In Practice - Books

Conservation magazine

A publication of the Society for Conservation Biology

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Fall 2003 (Vol. 4, No. 4)

Some books reviewed in our book review section are available through Amazon.com. To make your purchase easier we have included a link when available. When you purchase a book through this service on our website Conservation In Practice receives a portion of the purchase price.
Singing the Turtles to Sea: The Comcáac (Seri) Art and Science of Reptiles By Gary Paul Nabhan University of California Press, 2003 Reviewed by David B. Williams Only one serpent lives in the Sea of Cortez, the yellow-bellied seasnake. Biologists consider it to be extremely dangerous; full envenomation can kill a person in two and a half hours. The native people of the region, the Comcáac or Seri, also know that seasnakes can kill, but they do not fear the animal. Nor do they consider it dangerous, unless the snake gets caught in their fishing nets, and then they are wary. As Gary Nabhan writes in his most recent book, “The Comcáac sense of danger is not based on the mere presence of a venomous reptile, but on the context in which it is found.” This view is profoundly different from most scientific thoughts about seasnakes. His goal in Singing the Turtles to Sea is to show how this indigenous worldview of ecology, “a curious mix of scientific insight and artistic expression,” can inform Western science and point to better ways to manage the land and protect biodiversity. It continues the themes of ethnoecology that dominate his writing and which he most clearly explored in Cultures of Habitat, one of the most thought-provoking books written on nature and people. With Singing the Turtles, he narrows his focus to a specific culture, the Comcáac, and their unusual relationship with the reptiles that they share their landscape with. Nabhan, too, weaves together a “curious mix” of referenced science, personal narrative, Seri observations, photographs of art and people, and native language to tell his story. Although this format does not flow as well as that in his other books, it does allow Nabhan to bring in the numerous voices that make his account feel more cultural and inclusive and less purely scientific. The second part of the book includes detailed descriptions, both scientific and indigenous, of the herptofauna of the central Sonoran coast and islands. One could argue that Nabhan has chosen an atypical group of people to write about because they still live on their native land and still practice many of their historic customs, and fewer and fewer indigenous peoples can make such claims. Obviously, this is not his fault; it merely points out that the time is now to start learning from and collaborating with these people before they and their knowledge disappear. Back to Books Index >>
Farming With The Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches By Daniel Imhoff Sierra Club Books, 2003 Reviewed by David B. Williams Fly across the Midwest or California’s Central Valley in a jet, and you would not be mistaken if you thought that farming was bad for diversity. From the air, you would see millions of acres of mono-culture of soybean, corn, hay, wheat, and sugarcane. If you were to fly across the same landscapes, and many others, in a two-seater, say, you would begin to see pockets where farmers and ranchers have rejected this homogeneity. You would find a growing movement of people who not only work the land but also want to protect it. They come from diverse backgrounds and work in diverse ecosystems, but all recognize that their properties can be important sanctuaries of biodiversity. Over a several-year period, writer Daniel Imhoff traveled across the U.S. to meet with and learn how and why these people have chosen to farm with the wild, as he terms this movement. Mixing beautiful photography with short essays, Imhoff’s book is part inspirational and part how-to. He makes clear that no one way is best, that to make working land a haven for plants and animals requires an understanding of local ecology, as well as a lot of work. As Nabhan did in his book, Imhoff shows that for conservation to be successful, it will take a broad mix of people, many of whom have not been tapped for their wisdom and passion. Back to Books Index >>
Decolonizing Nature: Strategies for Conservation in a Post-colonial Era By Jason W. Clay Earthscan Publications Ltd., 2003 Reviewed by David B. Williams At first glance, the movie The Lion King has a simple story line. Kindly king is killed. Evil takes over. Son of king returns, learns environmental lesson of respecting the “circle of life,” restores order, and all is well. Looked at more critically, however, The Lion King “provides the most wonderful ammunition” for what author William Adams calls “colonial conservation.” The movie reflects the paternalistic, hierarchical, bureaucratic, idealized view of nature that colonialists carried around the world during the heyday of the British Empire. Branching out from this point, Adams and the other authors included in this edited volume offer examples from across the former empire of how these views still influence conservation practices. Although they raise more questions than they answer—which appears to be their goal—the authors and their examples provide a telling reminder that those who do not respect the past are doomed to repeat the mistakes of those who came before. It is a lesson particularly useful for those who try to influence events from abroad. Back to Books Index >>