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Challenges conservationists to rethink protecting the natural world; making political strategies central to increase support and influence.
List of contents
Introduction; Part I. The Problem: 1. The tragedy of political failure; 2. Like it or not, politics is the solution; Part II. Getting the Questions Right: 3. Ten questions for conservation politics; 4. Adapting society to the wild; 5. Striking at the roots; 6. Domination and the intractability of energy problems; Part III. Taking the Offensive: 7. Turning the tide; 8. Lessons from large scale conservation; 9. Doing large-scale restoration; 10. The other connectivity; 11. The special challenge of marine conservation; 12. The biological sciences and conservation; Part IV. Culture Change: 13. Conservation, George Orwell and language; 14. Restoring story and myth; 15. Conservation's moral imperative; Conclusion.
About the author
David Johns is both a conservation practitioner and Adjunct Professor of Political Science in the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University, where he teaches courses on politics and the environment, US constitutional law, and politics. He has published extensively on science, politics, and conservation issues. He is cofounder of the Wildlands Network, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, and Conservation Biology Institute, and is currently Chair of the Marine Conservation Institute board which created the Global Ocean Refuge System Initiative. He has worked with NGOs on conservation projects in the Russian Far East, Australia, Europe, southern Africa and throughout the Americas. He is recipient of the Denver Zoological Foundation's Conservation Award, 2007.
Summary
Shifting the focus in conservation biology to directly include political efficacy is vital to natural world protection. David Johns argues that the loss of species and healthy ecological systems is best understood as due to human efforts to impose a colonial relationship on the non-human world - one of exploitation and domination.
