Effective Conservation - by Ignacio Jimnez (Paperback)

About the Book

"Full Nature" is a new approach to conservation that connects the well-being of the natural world with the human communities in its midst. Pioneered by conservationist Ignacio Jiménez, it offers a pragmatic approach that puts the focus on working with people--neighbors, governments, politicians, businesses, media--to ensure communities have a stake in the long-term protection and restoration of their local parks and wildlife.

Effective Conservation is based on Jiménez's experience managing conservation projects on three continents over thirty years. It guides readers through the practical considerations of designing, analyzing, and managing effective conservation programs. This highly readable manual, newly translated into English after successful Spanish and Portuguese editions, provides a practical, time-proven formula for successful conservation.

Book Synopsis

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 Jiménez--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 Jiménez's experience managing conservation projects on three continents over thirty years. Jiménez 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. Jiménez 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.

Review Quotes

"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 Jiménez 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

"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"

"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"

"Ignacio Jiménez has wonderfully succeeded in distilling his vast on-the-ground conservation experience and presenting lessons for future conservation in a highly readable way. The Full Nature approach to conservation lays out a formula for successful, cooperative conservation."---Susan G. Clark, Yale University

"Rewilding, conflict management, participation, intelligence, leadership, and the strategies, techniques, and skills not taught at university are combined with some of the best examples of effective conservation on the planet. This book is going to become, without a doubt, an essential manual for twenty-first-century conservationists."---Deli Saavedra, Regional Manager for Rewilding Europe

"There are many books on conservation calling for action that no one heeds. Effective Conservation is different. Ignacio Jiménez 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

"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"

"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"

About the Author

Ignacio Jiménez 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.