Customer Reviews

Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anything with the names Richard Leakey and Virginia Morell on the cover is guaranteed to be a worthwhile read. Like his equally brilliant and famous father Louis, Richard Leakey is not without controversial opinion. Though generally in agreement with the authors, I found this book challenging some of my basic assumptions about conservation. To that end the book provides an excellent point of departure for classroom discussions on major conservation issues of the day such as community roles in conservation, the effectiveness of National Parks in protecting wildlife and biodiversity, and the interplay between international, national and local needs and strategies. The book is an exhilarating, easy read and will appeal to a broad range of ages and cultural backgrounds.

This book succeeds well both as a conservation and as an action story about leading change.

Dr. Richard Leakey, son of the famous Louis and Mary Leakey, is best known for his work in unearthing early human fossils in Kenya. While doing his paleontological work, he also headed up the National Kenya Museum. As a high profile Kenyan, his criticisms of the rampant slaughter of wild elephants had drawn the attention of Kenya’s president, Mr. Daniel arap Moi. Without warning, Dr. Leakey was appointed head of the Kenya Department of Wildlife and Conservation Management in 1989 and given encouragement to solve the problem.

Dr. Leakey found many serious problems. Corruption was rampant (rangers often were doing the poaching or helping the poachers). Less than 5 percent of the equipment worked. Little training was provided. Basics like gasoline were not available to maintain patrols. The poachers were using automatic weapons and had the rangers outgunned by a wide margin. Tourists were being robbed and killed, which potentially would dry up sources of income for Kenya.

What follows is a truly astonishing tale of how one man made a difference, but not quite enough of one. Reorganized as the Kenya Wildlife Service, the new organization became effective in fighting the poachers. Dr. Leakey fought untiringly to stop the international ivory trade and change consumer attitudes away from ivory products. To launch this effort, he publicly burned over three million dollars of seized ivory for the international television cameras. He also made many trips to economically advanced countries to raise funds, and obtained capital needed to establish a self-funding wildlife activity in Kenya.

But as the checks began to roll in, the political hands became outstretched. Dr. Leakey resigned in 1994 to protest the lost of autonomy for the KWS, and most of the money was diverted for non-wildlife spending. On the brink of bankruptcy, he was brought in to improve operations again in 1998 and had everything in the black within a year.

The book also recounts Dr. Leakey’s serious health problems. His life was saved by a kidney transplant from his brother in 1979. A 1993 plane crash caused part of both legs to be amputated.

What you also may not know about Dr. Leakey is that his formal educational training stopped around high school. He actually started out a safari business as a young man. So even in his best known area, he learned on the job. The same thing happened with his work on behalf of elephants. You will probably agree with me that he was astonishingly effective in both areas.

The main flaw in his plan was that his new agency needed to be more independent of Kenyan politics, and the funding from the World Bank should not have flowed through the Kenyan treasury where it provided too much political temptation.

The end of the book briefly recounts his conversion into a parliamentary political opponent of the ruling party.

I came away very impressed with the courage of the Kenyan rangers in taking on the poachers. Until several years into the program, the rangers were very likely to be killed in each engagement. For a scientist like Dr. Leakey to envision how to build and motivate a military organization was quite remarkable.

If you ever have a chance to see an elephant in Kenya, be sure to remember to think kindly of the brave Kenyans who made it possible.

After you finish this book, think about rare wildlife near where you live. What can you do to help ensure that the wildlife will be there for future generations? Be sure to remember Dr. Leakey’s observation, “There is surely no simple prescription.”

Help create a better world for all the animals and people!

Dr. Richard Leakey has authored a compelling account of his time at the helm of Kenya Wildlife Services. The book recounts the bush war against poaching, and contains a very vivid description of Kenyan political life. Sadly - and ironically - the success of Dr. Leakey's management of KWS created a long list of political adversaries that eventually forced Leaky to resign from the post.

There can be no doubt that Dr. Leakey has been the chief architect behind the saving of the African elephant from extinction by the hands of poachers. Dr. Leakey's work stands as one of the most important wildlife conservation achievements of all time. Finally, I believe Dr. Leakey is one of the - perhaps last? - great Kenyan patriots. This story inspires. If there were ever a Nobel Prize for bravery and commitment, surely it would be his.

Anyone who has ever been to Kenya's extraordinary game parks to see the elephants, or dreamed of doing so, will be fascinated by this story of how these parks came to be the refuges they are and not the corrals for government-sanctioned poaching that they were. When paleontologist Richard Leakey took over the Department of Wildlife and Conservation in 1989, rampant corruption, theft, absenteeism, and a don't-care attitude were hallmarks within the department.

The Kenyan government lacked a real commitment to conservation, and the burgeoning population exerted pressure on national park borders, clearing land for farming and threatening wildlife, unimpeded. Poaching, patronage, a general ripoff mentality, and collusion between park rangers, politicians, blackmarketeers, and smugglers, were so interconnected and seemingly so ineradicable that the department resembled a many-headed hydra. Tribal rivalries within Kenya, a porous border through which Somalian thieves made forays, and a lack of agreement between Kenya and neighboring African countries about the best way to conserve animals made this one of the most daunting management challenges imaginable.

In prose that is as direct and to the point (and sometimes as self-congratulatory) as he is, Leakey tells how he managed a multimilliondollar corporation in a country in which everyone wants a piece of the pie, usually under the table. As Leakey tells of cleaning up the department and conserving the elephants, the reader also learns about the economics of the ivory trade, the tug-of-war between immediate political realities and long-term goals, the role of the World Bank in African development, and the politicking involved in deciding what is an endangered species under the U.N.'s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). It's a fascinating tale, equally intriguing to the lover of wildlife, the student of management, and the East African history buff. Mary Whipple

"Wildlife Wars" is a gripping and very personal behind-the-scenes account of the intense and often bloody battle to save Kenya's elephants from poachers in the 1990s. Dr. Richard Leakey's many admirers will be fascinated to see the human being behind the legend, as he shares the epiphany that led him to dedicate himself to this nearly impossible task, and as he recounts his daily struggles against political intrigue, international bureaucracy, dangerous enemies and, most of all, the consuming self-doubt that he felt he had to conceal from the world. Dr. Leakey's memoir highlights the commitment, courage and sacrifices of the men and women at the front lines. With a modesty that may surprise Dr. Leakey's critics, if not his friends, the book downplays the role of his personal leadership in bringing forth heroism and dedication from a demoralized force riddled with corruption. Sadly, despite the many lives and many millions of dollars that have been dedicated to the cause of saving them, the future of Africa's elephants is very tenuous. Poachers remain an ever-present threat, but an even greater source of peril is the rapidly expanding human population. Will our species ultimately leave enough room for this magnificent species to survive? Or will the march of economic development succeed where AK-47s failed?

The text of the book,the determinatoin of the writer in combating poarching,the fight against corrupt elements within the industry i.e tourism and wildlife and above all the success of bringing this fight to the attention of the world all gives me the pleasure of praising this book.

Richard Leakey and Virginia Morell are always worth of our attention as we strive to educate ourselves in order to be more effective in our attempts to live sustainably with our fellow Co-Species - equal but differently abled on this planet.

I found that this book moves along in a life adventure as it explains the serious problems along the way - Corruption was rampant (rangers were poaching or in cahoots with the poachers) - Much of the equipment did not work - there was a lack of training for those involved, gasoline was not available to do vehicle patrols. The poachers use automatic weapons, hard to fight. Tourists were/are robbed and killed, which disourages tourism which is a necessary source of income to protect the wildlife.

Dr. Leakey's observations are important - unfortunately he is describing a problem that is more and more prevalent in "different clothing" in much of our world - now openly we are being told that for our own good mining in state and federal lands, blasting of mountains - and many things that will ruin the habitat for all manner of wildlife is okay or to be desired. Many of our politicians are no better than rangers poaching and/or helping the poachers . . .
Do read this book . . and reflect on how the challenges in Africa are also present in many forms in our more "civilized" countries . . . .

Save Vermont, its wildlife and its Green Mountains -Please sign our petition - Save The Lowell Mountains NOW - please post this petition to your pages - we can save our planet! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-vermonts-green-mountains-save-the-lowell-mountains/


The Vermont Green Mountains AND all of their wild life and habitat are under attack by corporations seeking the huge, millions of dollars of Federal Subsidies - If the Lowell Mountains Industrial wind Turbine project goes through - so will more than 30 more and many more mountain tops will be flattened. They are getting around Act 250 - at stake: Wetlands, Wildlife habitat including: Bear, Moose, Deer, Bat, Eagle, Hawk, songbirds, Owl, Woodpecker, Beaver and other habitat. The blasting will ruin the aquifers leading to streams, bogs, wells and wetland alteration and/or destruction. Vermont does not have enough wind to even minimally excuse the destruction of its mountain tops. The rural people of Vermont do NOT have the money to fight this - but with your signatures on the petition - with Joining our Facebook page - Save The Lowell Mountains Now! http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Save-The-Lowell-Mountains-Now/142646539128621 and sending the letters and emails in the NOTES sections - We CAN turn this around! Please - this is happening right now . . . Please help us!!! Please help save Vermont, its heritage beauty, its rural lifestyle, its tourism, and its wildlife

I bought this book years ago and it was sitting on my shelf for a while. I figured I had already read many books about the wildlife trade and probably wouldn't learn much that was new. Boy was I wrong! Richard Leaky, of paleontology fame, writes as an insider in the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). I found it extremely useful to hear his point of view as a government official in a developing country. As a White African, Leaky is perhaps better suited to relating the politics of Kenya than an indigenous Kenya might be since he shares the scorn of the West for "tribal" politics but also strives to succeed within the "system." Few other developing-country conservation officials have the inclination or ability to so directly address a Western audience.

Leaky's account is aptly titled - with an emphasis on "wars." I was struck by how much he sounded and acted like a general organizing troops for battle rather than a conservationist. Indeed, his initial focus was on obtaining high-powered rifles and equipment for park rangers to fight against poachers. I gained a new respect both for the men and women who work in these parks and for the managers who have to make the decisions Leaky faced. He also exposes the system of corruption within the Kenyan bureaucracy and how it posed such a problem for wildlife law enforcement. Too often conservationists make a vague statement to the effect that "the problem isn't the laws, it's the lack of enforcement." Leaky shows why laws aren't enforced, and, more importantly, how dedicated reformers can turn wildlife enforcement agencies around.

Leaky is also brutally critical of some conservationist orthodoxy, such as the claim that people and wildlife can live together. Indeed, Leaky is upfront in his assessment that parks provide THE best protection for wildlife, and separating people from wildlife is the only lasting solution. He scorns community-based conservation as too idealistic, and based on his anecdotes of how tribes in Kenya misused community-based conservation funds, I fear he has a point. For example, I was saddened to see that the Masai did (and continue to) allow cattle to trammel through the Masai Mara, one of Africa's most important ecosystems.

I think this book will give Western conservationists greater insight into the challenges governments in developing countries face in protecting their wildlife. Leaky deals with the corruption, tribal politics, and economic challenges to conservation in Kenya. Hopefully, conservationists who read this book will stop simply saying the laws aren't enforced, but rather try to push some of the reforms Leaky tried to institute in Kenya.

Dr. Leakey is a world hero. His vision and ability to execute it, while inspiring his compatriots, is legendary. If only all world wildlife leaders were as effective as he at conservation strategy implementation. The book is so good that I tried not to read too much at one sitting, lest it end too quickly. Even if you are not passionate about wildlife conservation, this may well be the best book you'll ever read. GRY

My son needed a book for a school project. He choose this and found it an interesting read and very infomative. He is 12.