In 1978, when Bill Weber and Amy Vedder arrived in Rwanda to study mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey, the gorilla population was teetering toward extinction. Poaching was rampant, but it was loss of habitat that most endangered the gorillas. When yet another large slice of the Virunga
parkland was threatened with development, Weber and Vedder recognized the gorillas were doomed unless local Rwandans' basic needs were addressed. Over Fossey's objections, the Mountain Gorilla Project including one of the first ecotourism programs anywherewas born, and in a short time, proved hugely successful. Weber and Vedder describe their experiences getting to know families of gorillas as individuals, from newborn infants to powerful silverback patriarchs. They offer a candid view of the increasingly troubled Fossey, who made the gorillas internationally famous but whose plan for protecting them was a failure. They explain that the key to saving the mountain gorillas was helping the people of Rwanda to share in the benefits of conservation. So successful was the effort that the gorilla population reversed its decline and began a dramatic rise. Even during Rwanda's horrendous civil war both sides respected the gorillas, providing new hope for the species' fragile future. Bill Weber and Amy Vedder are internationally recognized for their work with mountain gorillas and tropical rain forests. For the past 28 years they have actively promoted the cause of conservation in nearly thirty countries around the world. Drs. Weber and Vedder are directors of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
FROM Publisher's Weekly
September 24, 2001
Dian Fossey brought world attention to Rwanda's endangered mountain gorillas in 1978, but the animals have survived largely because of the pioneering work of ecologists Weber and Vedder. Realizing that gorilla conservation was not a priority for a country facing staggering economic and development problems, they persuaded skeptical authorities that a program combining research, ecotourism and education could both protect
these majestic primates and generate economy-boosting revenues.
Their Mountain Gorilla Project, implemented over Fossey's objections, proved successful, withrecent gorilla censuses showing dramatic population increases. Weber and Vedder's fascinating account of their years in Rwanda describes thrilling, sometimes heart-breaking gorilla encounters, and analyzes their painful relationships with Fossey with bracing honesty. But the book's larger, and more complex, subject is conservation in a war-ravaged postcolonial world
struggling with increased competition for finite resources. Weber and Vedder ably portray Rwandan society, fraught with ethnic divisions and governmental corruption that not only threatened wildlife conservation but imperiled human safety. Their description of the 1994 genocide of Tutsis by Hutus based on reports from friends still in the country at the timeis a chilling reminder that humans, too, are a fragile species. "We can't love animals or save wildlife," Weber and Vedder conclude, "without understanding the social economic, and political context in which conservation occurs."
Though they concede that "complete understanding [of a different culture] is a myth," they argue persuasively for continued efforts to this end.
Forecast: If ever a conservation book gets attention, this will be it. The
combination of intimate primate portraits, sociopolitical observation,
scientific conflict, successful sustained activism, and intercultural
cooperation will attract readers of many stripes.
Related Links
To the Audubon site:
http://www.audubonportland.org/cal/monthly.html
To the author's site (Wildlife Conservation Society):
http://wcs.org/home/sightsandsounds/books/kingdomofgorillas/
