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

From Publishers Weekly
In conservation and wildlife preservation, paleontology and East African politics, few have mattered more than Leakey (The Sixth Extinction), who emerged as an expert on early humans, building on his famous parents' discoveries as he explained in the 1983 memoir, One Life. This second memoir describes his high-stakes second career. In 1989, Leakey became the head of Kenya's Wildlife Department, which put him in charge of saving elephants from the poaching that risked their extinction. Leakey and Morell explain, with speed and cogency, the murderous business of poaching and the difficulties of the Wildlife Department in 1989 perhaps "the most corrupt organization" in Kenya; "everyone thought the poachers were invincible" in fighting it. Leakey arranged a bonfire of seized ivory, a public relations triumph. He also issued semi-automatic weapons to park rangers. Gangs retaliated, in part, by killing George Adamson, of Born Free fame; public reaction helped Leakey and allies achieve an international ban on the ivory trade. Leakey later found his work and his life in peril, and a 1993 plane crash cost him his legs. Leakey and Morell (who has also penned a book about the Leakeys, Ancestral Passions) tell a brisk and vividly personal story. Though longer on laws and press conferences than on elephants, the memoir will fascinate anyone interested in conservation or East African politics. The detailed narrative stops in 1994, when Leakey first left his Wildlife job; subsequent events including Leakey's ascent to Parliament as an opposition candidate occupy just a few pages. Readers will await those stories eagerly, while holding out hopes for Kenya and its pachyderms. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this sequel to his 1983 memoir One Life, paleontologist Leakey writes about his appointment in 1989 to a mismanaged Wildlife Department in his home of Kenya. He immediately realized the unprecedented challenge that he faced in not only revitalizing the agency but also combating the precipitous decline in Kenyan wildlife, most particularly, the African elephant. One of his first decisions was to burn rather than sell tons of confiscated ivory. This sent a strong message that his department would be unwavering in opposing the ivory trade. He backed this up by reorganizing the department into the Kenyan Wildlife Service and arming his rangers to do battle with poachers. This, combined with international lobbying against the ivory trade, did much to bring the elephant back from the brink of decimation, but the cost included continual conflict with other government officials and the loss of his legs in a suspicious 1993 plane accident. He joined an opposition political party after a smear campaign but has now rejoined the government in a new role. Wildlife readers will find few animal stories here; this is a political story. At times, even Leakey himself admits that he is not a consummate political player, but as an effective champion of wildlife he appears to have few equals. Highly recommended.- Beth Crim, Prince William P.L., VA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Leakey, the scion of an internationally famous family of anthropologists, made headlines around the world for his discoveries of human ancestors in East Africa. His life of fossil-hunting expeditions changed radically in 1989, when Kenyan president Moi appointed Leakey to head the demoralized and corrupt Kenyan Wildlife Department. This period was the height of the slaughter of Africa's elephants for their precious ivory, and Leakey had spoken out about the need for change. In an engaging and blunt writing style, Leakey tells of political infighting and arm-twisting he had to go through in straightening out the Wildlife Department. One of the first, and most dramatic, things he did was to burn the 13 tons of ivory that had been seized from poachers. As he began to heal the malaise in the Wildlife Department, Leakey also lobbied to end the world trade in ivory as Kenya successfully proposed moving elephants to a totally protected area. Leakey tells his story well in this wonderful inside look at the politics of wildlife protection in a developing country. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


From Book News, Inc.
Leakey, known for his work in early human origins, was appointed to run Kenya's Wildlife Department during a period when elephant herds were dwindling due to ivory poachers. His account of his work restructuring the department and taking radical measures to stop poaching reveals his passion for wildlife conservation. The book includes b&w personal and historical photos. Leakey was director of the Kenyan Wildlife Department from 1989 to 1994, and from 1998 to 1999, then served as head of Kenya's civil service and secretary to the Cabinet until March 2001. Morell has written previous books on the Leakey family and on archaeology.Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR


Book Description
Known the world over for his work in early human origins, Richard Leakey was serving as director of Kenya's National Museums when in 1989 President Daniel arap Moi appointed him to run the country's Wildlife Conservation Department. The news stunned Leakey. He was suddenly in charge of an enormous bureaucracy whose responsibility was to oversee millions of square acres of parks and sanctuaries, and to protect the animals living in them. Like many other Kenyans, Leakey knew that the country's fabulous wildlife population was in very real danger, and in particular the elephant. By the late 1980s, the once numberless herds of elephants that roamed its savannas were dwindling fast, victims to poachers armed with automatic weapons, bureaucratic inefficiency, and the world's appetite for ivory. Extinction was more than a theoretical possibility. Leakey quickly realized he had been given far more than a job; he had been thrust onto the front lines of a wildlife war, one that was being fought as fiercely in Nairobi's government offices as in the parks themselves. Extreme conditions called for extreme measures. One of his first orders of business involved an enormous warehouse of confiscated elephant tusks that were to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, the proceeds used to buttress the demoralized and nearly bankrupt Wildlife Department. Rather than sell the tusks, however, Leakey decided to burn them. The bonfire flames captured the world's attention. The fight to save the African elephant was ignited. Wildlife Wars is Leakey's inspiring and dramatic account of these turbulent times, indelibly capturing Kenya's struggle to balance the needs of its human population with the task of maintaining the world-famous parks that are its major source of revenue. He threw himself into his job: restructuring the department, firing non-performing personnel, securing funds for equipment, and building up a park police force that had both the will and the means to take on the poachers. By slow degrees he and his colleagues at Wildlife were beginning to turn the tide. But the cost of success was often high. As candid and controversial as its author, this memoir, co-written with Leakey family biographer and writer Virginia Morell, is testimony to one man's commitment to save African wildlife and to serve his country. Richard Leakey has survived threats on his life, political attacks, and a plane crash that cost him both legs. Today, unbowed, he remains one of Kenya's-and sub-Saharan Africa's-most passionate spokesman for conservation, political, and economic reform. Wildlife Wars reveals how deeply his passion runs.


About the Author
Richard Leakey was director of the Kenyan Wildlife Service from 1989 to 1994, and from 1998 to 1999, then served as head of Kenya's civil service and secretary to the Cabinet, a position he left in March 2001. He lives with his wife, the paleontologist Meave Leakey, on a farm overlooking the Rift Valley in Kenya. Virginia Morell is the author of Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings, and the forthcoming Blue Nile: Ethiopia's River of Magic and Mystery. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, and Science, for which she is a correspondent. She lives in Oregon.


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Combining his passion for Kenya and all that country's living creatures-poachers excepted-with a lucid, humanistic appreciation of what both need to survive, Leakey (The Sixth Extinction, 1995, etc.) offers a vision not just for the Kenyan Wildlife Service but for the nation as a whole. In 1989, out of the blue, Leakey was asked by President Daniel arap Moi to direct Kenya's Wildlife Department. A noted paleontologist and discoverer of human fossil remains, Leakey had no experience in wildlife conservation, but he was just the kind of honest activist needed to clean up the corruption-rife department. Here, he thoroughly covers his days in office and the plan he developed to put the wildlife service back on an operational footing after years of mismanagement, graft, political shenanigans, and theft. Of course, he made enemies like a dead elephant attracts flies: There were the poachers and parliamentarians who benefited handsomely from the ivory trade, the real-estate interests who wanted slices of the national parks, the power mongers who didn't like Leakey having Moi's ear, or for using an autocratic style. But what a job he did: cutting staff members on the take and the number of poachings to a fraction, bringing in a sensible World Bank loan, developing financial autonomy within the department. Though toppled briefly by vested interests, he returned to the wildlife department and now works to end what he considers the most insidious threat of all: poverty. Biodiversity is critical, yes, but so is eating. Killing animal species will not bring prosperity, though jobs will. Yet the two-hunger and poaching-remain caught in a horrid dance kept going by corrupt officials anddealers in the expensive gimcrackery of ivory and pelts. The happy ending is that Leakey is on the job, albeit less than sanguine: "Kenya's politics are rough," understates the man who has given his legs, after a suspicious plane crash, to the cause.


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