Beautiful Beasts, Beautiful Lands: the Fall and Rise of an African National Park

Mark Infield
Whittles Publishing, £18.99

I loved this book for many reasons – in part because Infield is an engaging writer, but mainly because of the way he has opened his experience for us to share in the trials and tribulations of someone interested in the conservation of nature.

Infield writes about this as someone who has worked on the conservation front line for more than four decades. In this fascinating book, he articulates and clarifies what we need to do for conservation to meet the needs of local people. Conservation of nature is a complex and contested subject, with approaches such as fortress conservation epitomised by national parks, where conflict is often created with local people, who become excluded from accessing resources they have traditionally used. This approach continues to this day, despite detractors who highlight the need to protect nature, especially in biodiversity hotspots.

Infield has vast experience of this approach – and the problems it creates – in Africa and Southeast Asia. Much of this experience was gained in Lake Mburo National Park in Uganda, which inspired the book’s title. Here, the local people have continued to use the national park for grazing their iconic Ankole cattle (beautiful beasts), despite years of the authorities trying to exclude cattle from their traditional grazing areas. The author uses his experience to show how many approaches to dealing with this conflict have not worked. This is because, until the national park was recognised as a cultural landscape for the local pastoral people (beautiful lands), approaches using, for example, financial incentives were simply not hitting the mark.

Eventually, the authorities realised that by allowing some grazing by a small foundation herd, they could engage effectively with the local people. The story told in detail should be required reading for conservation researchers and practitioners across the planet. Only by understanding the culture and values of local communities will we be able to have a hope of protecting nature in all its glory.

Professor Iain Gordon FRSB

Reviewed by Professor Iain Gordon FRSB, Honorary Professor at the Fenner School of Environment & Society, The Australian National University