At the Hand of Man

...We felt that it would be arrogant and inappropriate for outsiders to tell Africa what to do about a natural resource of theirs...

...Most of these members are more traditionally oriented towards species 'preservation.' " According to William Reilly, then–WWF president and later Bush's EPA administrator, "Based on our survey research in this country, there is a major problem with any policy that condones killing elephants...

...Africans do not vote in U.S...

...AWF placed a full-page ad in the New York Times, with the headline: "Today, in America, Someone Will Slaughter an Elephant for a Bracelet...

...The problem is that the wildlife groups lack the guts to make that argument...

...0 f course, when the government usurps control over wildlife that people have considered their own for millennia, those who hunt the King's game become, ipso facto, "poachers...

...But Bonner grew alarmed as the movement's activists descended into zealotry...

...It would take moral courage," Bonner says, "to come up with a slogan like `Buy Ivory, Save Elephants,' which is what sustainable utilization is all about...

...Let them make money from wildlife—turn what heretofore have been liabilities into assets...

...171...

...As Garth Owen-Smith (one of the few white conservationists in Africa Bonner applauds) suggests, "Somebody ought to do a profile of the guys who have been shot...

...S. from threatening the World Conservation Union and other legitimate groups with public denunciations if they didn't go along with the ban...

...and the African elephant is perhaps the most beloved of all wild animals...

...The stories Bonner tells are enough to make even the most jaded critic of environmental politics wince...

...This will provide a powerful incentive against poaching," Bonner writes...

...ivory is a luxury good with no organized economic constituency...

...Only a few months before the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) began its infamous "Don't Buy Ivory" crusade, its vice-president was still wearing ivory bracelets herself, and said that calling for an international ban was an extreme position to take...

...Now he has focused on Africa to uncover one of the most egregious environmental hoaxes of recent times—in a book that is not likely to win him any of those same awards...

...And, Bonner admits, "I joined Ike C. Sugg is the Walker Fellow in Environmental Studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C...

...The ban deprived Africans of $50 million in revenue from the sale of ivory...

...June 5 happened to be World Environment Day, and Bush wanted to throw a bone to the environmental establishment, to deflect criticism of his handling of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and to make good on his campaign promise to be "the environmental president...

...Bonner's plea is a simple one: Put people first...

...Over the years, millions of Africans have been evicted from their ancestral homes to make way for wildlife parks...

...People are not likely to rob their own bank, and will report those who do...

...The story of conservationism in Africa, after all, is a story of Africans divorced from the land and the wildlife on it—a story, in short, of colonialism...

...I am a liberal," Bonner proclaims in the prologue...

...As a 1988 WWF memorandum explained, "Although we support sustainable wildlife utilization projects, these concepts are not understood by the vast majority of the 450,000 WWF-U.S...

...While Africans lost the rights to—and use of—"their" elephants that year, AWF nearly doubled its membership...

...Botswana and South Africa experienced similar successes...

...In the debate over the ivory ban," writes Bonner, "they accorded rights to elephants, but ignored the rights of people...

...At the Hand of Man masterfully redirects concern for Africa's wildlife to Africa's people, using the elephant as a paradigm for describing what is wrong with the theory and practice of wildlife conservation in Africa today...

...I was a vegetarian for a period in the seventies . . . and have been opposed to commercial whaling and cutting down forests...

...The rate at which poachers were killing African elephants for their ivory left him "sickened and furious...

...The West was listening...

...Even senior officers at WWF–U.S...

...Most rural-dwelling Africans live on $200-400 per year, per household—quite often with eight people per household...

...But that didn't stop more politically minded activists at WWF–U...

...wrote in 1988 that the elephant was not yet endangered...

...Throughout his first year in office one poacher was shot to death every four days...

...And because much of the revenue from African ivory exports went to finance conservation programs, the trade ban wound up exacerbating wildlife problems...

...On June 5, 1989, President Bush unilaterally banned the importation of ivory into the United States...

...He's an average normal guy, a poor farmer who is trying to feed his family...

...But the West wants to preserve Africa's wildlife, which means that it doesn't want Africans to profit from its existence...

...By giving their citizens an economic stake in their valuable wildlife resources, these governments found that people would conserve them...

...So did Richard Leakey, who as director of Kenya's wildlife department ordered a shoot-on-sight policy...

...The environmental establishment tells us that elephants are a "priceless heritage" to be preserved for "our children's children...

...It] had to be stopped, I shouted to myself, and to anyone else who would listen...

...Theirs implies ownership...

...And while some countries' elephant populations were declining, Zimbabwe's herd had more than doubled...

...Soon," Leakey boasted, "the press will not be asking permission to film dead elephants but only to film dead poachers...

...Instead they sacrificed their principles—and abandoned most Africans as well...

...So when Bonner went to Kenya to live and write in 1988, the slogan "Ban the Bloody Ivory Trade" was appealing...

...T he conflict is one between preservation on the one hand and conservation (also called "sustainable utilization") on the other...

...But AWF was not the only profiteer, nor was it calling all the shots...

...And whose children's children...

...We just wanted to educate people, nothing more," said AWF's vice-president...

...Whatever hope he may see, Bonner's tale is a sad one, and he weaves it through his book with verve and purpose...

...Before the ban, sustainable utilization programs were doubling incomes for many Zimbabweans...

...As many Africans see it," Bonner explains, "white people are making rules to protect animals that white people want to see in parks that white people visit...

...If explaining these concepts meant losing members," Bonner writes, "at least the organizations would be true to their conservation principles...

...In arguing for the latter, Bonner points out that wildlife is not worth much effort to save if it cannot be used by Man...

...resource implies use...

...But as Bonner asks, "Whose heritage is it...

...elections...

...In fact, Bonner says, the campaign was designed to do two things: to shock and to raise money...

...the chorus...

...Give people a reason to care for the wildlife that has been taken from them...

...Leading the chorus were the animal rights activists...

...Banning ivory imports was, as one administration official put it, a "low cost" action...

...members...

...Other AWF ads featured a woman wearing an ivory necklace ("Dressed to Kill"), and another with ivory bracelets ("Accessories to Murder...

...By the end of 1989, the "Bloody Ivory Trade" was banned worldwide...

...Every conservationist at [the World Wildlife Fund–U.S.] who knew anything about Africa was opposed to the ban," reports Bonner—and so were a majority of conservationists in Africa...

...That sentiment notwithstanding, writes Bonner, they "went right ahead and told them...