Save me from the Lion's Mouth

Book excerpt: Save Me From the Lion's Mouth investigates the increasing conflict between people and wildlife in Africa and what needs to be done about it. It describes the human suffering and perceptions of those who live outside the reserve fences among man-eaters and marauders yet are excluded from the economic benefits accruing from the wildlife around them. It provides evidence of a growing resentment among rural communities, especially near game reserves and warns how it is threatening the existence of Africa’s game reserves. The book suggests that many in the Northern Hemisphere who support African wildlife conservation are blind to the seriousness of the situation. Some African states – notably Kenya and Tanzania – adopt wildlife policies to please donor countries from whom they receive millions of dollars. Thus government policies, many of them patently disastrous and certainly detrimental to rural Africans and to wildlife, are dictated from middle class homes across Europe and America. Fortunately there is a growing international lobby that is seeking solutions.