Game Changer: Animal Rights and the Fate of Africa’s Wildlife

In this nuanced investigation into the health and future of East African wildlife, Martin (National Geographic’s Guide to Wildlife Watching) explores the conflict between traditional wildlife conservationists—“dispassionate, data-driven, focused on habitat and suites of species”—and “New Environmentalism,” which focuses on “the inherent rights of the individual animal.” Through interviews, Martin finds that the essential dispute lies in the old line conservationists’ views that to save the wildlife, “game that can be taken without affecting base populations should be taken, with the proceeds…going to local people,” whereas animal rights proponents like James Isiche, the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s director for East Africa, promote hunting bans and ecotourism. But whether in Kenya, where the hunting ban is undermined by rampant poaching and illegal trading and development associated with ecotourism results in degradation of ecosystems, or Tanzania, where both trophy hunting and subsistence hunting are contributing to game decline, corruption, lack of enforcement, and overpopulation overwhelm the merits of either approach. Meanwhile, biometrition Lyman McDonald concludes that without controlling population growth and overgrazing of cattle, conservation is doomed to fail. Because big families and wealth measured by livestock are key elements of rural life, massive cultural change may be African megafauna’s only hope for long-term survival in the wild. Photos. (Mar.)