For most, "conservation" conjures the notion of minimizing human presence on wildlands to avoid harmful impacts. But too often, this defensive approach has pitted local communities against conservationists, wasting opportunities for collaboration and setting the stage for ongoing conflict. One conservation approach turns that paradigm on its head, and instead connects conservation with the well-being of human communities, setting both up for success. Called "Full Nature," this approach-pioneered by conservationist Ignacio Jimenez-seeks to promote fully functional natural landscapes that are tied to the basic needs of the communities in their midst. They become a self-sustaining cycle, where nature and people are integrated ecologically, socially, and politically.
Effective Conservation is based on Jimenez's experience managing conservation projects on three continents over thirty years. Jimenez offers a pragmatic approach to conservation that puts the focus on working with people-neighbors, governments, politicians, businesses, media-to ensure they have a long-term stake in protecting and restoring parks and wildlife. Jimenez guides readers through the practical considerations of designing, analyzing, and managing effective conservation programs. Chapters explore intelligence gathering, communication, planning, conflict management, and evaluation techniques, and include numerous text boxes showcasing examples of successful conservation projects from all continents. A companion website (islandpress.org/effective-conservation) includes additional case studies, expanded texts, and links to additional resources.
This highly readable manual, newly translated into English after successful Spanish and Portuguese editions, provides a groundbreaking and time-proven formula for successful conservation projects around the world that bring together parks, people, and nature.
About the Author
Ignacio Jimenez has extensive international experience in conservation. He has coordinated research and management projects in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Madagascar, and El Salvador, and coordinated a national assessment of the Spanish experience in endangered species recovery. He worked for CLT/Tompkins Conservation in Argentina between 2005 and 2018, where he managed the largest reintroduction program in the Americas. He spent 2016 in South Africa to learn about how public and private organizations in Africa manage and integrate nature reserves, rewilding, and ecotourism. In 2018 he collaborated with Brazilian organizations to establish two large conservation landscapes in the Atlantic Forest and the Pantanal.
Presently, Ignacio lives with his family near a nature park on the Spanish coast and coordinates a project aimed to establish new or expanded protected areas in his home country.
Industry Reviews
"Throughout, what will particularly interest field naturalists, are very brief descriptions of efforts to restore endangered species and the longer outlines of back-from-the-brink case histories.... Important points are made throughout this important book, all of which are worth thinking about right now."
-- "Canadian Field Naturalist"
"An extraordinary book.... A coherent, insightful, easily understood manual for designing and managing conservation projects specific to local development situations.... It will become a classic reference in the years to come."
-- "Choice"
"Effective Conservation documents, with world-wide examples, the pressing social, political, and economic dimensions of protecting and restoring the environment upon which the future of humankind depends. Everyone concerned about the relentless destruction of nature must read this profound volume about how best to confront the challenges of conserving our imperiled biological diversity."--George Schaller, author of The Year of the Gorilla, The Last Panda, and Tibet Wild
"Effective Conservation is a close-up look at modern wildlife restoration as practiced in the extraordinarily successful programs of Tompkins Conservation. The main part of the book is a practical and highly readable manual for science-based wildlife restoration skillfully written by Ignacio Jimenez and with world-wide examples. This is dramatic ground-breaking conservation. It consists of innovation, inspired motivation, on-site promotion and support despite personal loss. The clarity of the book's science is also a significant achievement in itself. In sum, it brings together fascinating science, but also personal resolution in a real-life conservation science manual."
--William Conway, former Director and President of Wildlife Conservation Society
"Effective Conservation is a practical manual for hopeful action on behalf of life on Earth--an exploration of what has worked, what has not worked, and the lessons learned from failures."--Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, President and Cofounder, Tompkins Conservation
"Effective Conservation is a useful book--rich in cases illustrating how it can be done in the face of opposition and the inertia of endless growth.... This is a book that belongs in every conservation practitioners' library, in grad school classes and programs, and in NGOs."-- "Biological Conservation"
"There are many books on conservation calling for action that no one heeds. Effective Conservation is different. Ignacio Jimenez has spent his life on conservation's front line, making it happen and studying the success and setbacks of others. The lessons he has learned are in this invaluable guidebook to action. Please read it."
--David Johns, Cofounder of Wildlands Network, of Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, and of Conservation Biology Institute
"A highly readable manual that provides a groundbreaking and time-proven formula for successful conservation projects around the world that bring together parks, people, and nature .... Effective Conservation: Parks, Rewilding, and Local Development is an ideal and practical combination of instructional guide and 'how to' manual that is highly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Environmental Conservation collections."
-- "Midwest Book Review"
