Product Description

When Bill Weber and Amy Vedder arrived in Rwanda to study mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey, the gorilla population was teetering toward extinction. Poaching was rampant, but it was loss of habitat that most endangered the gorillas. Weber and Vedder realized that the gorillas were doomed unless something was done to save their forest home. Over Fossey's objections, they helped found the Mountain Gorilla Project, which would inform Rwandans about the gorillas and the importance of conservation, while at the same time establishing an ecotourism project -- one of the first anywhere in a rainforest -- to bring desperately needed revenue to Rwanda. In the Kingdom of Gorillas introduces readers to entire families of gorillas, from powerful silverback patriarchs to helpless newborn infants. Weber and Vedder take us with them as they slog through the rain-soaked mountain forests, observing the gorillas at rest and at play. Today the population of mountain gorillas is the highest it has been since the 1960s, and there is new hope for the species' fragile future even as the people of Rwanda strive to overcome ethnic and political differences.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #445911 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-26
• Released on: 2002-11-26
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.04" h x 6.78" w x 8.02" l, .84 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Dian Fossey brought world attention to Rwanda's endangered mountain gorillas in 1978, but the animals have survived largely because of the pioneering work of ecologists Weber and Vedder. Realizing that gorilla conservation was not a priority for a country facing staggering economic and development problems, they persuaded skeptical authorities that a program combining research, ecotourism and education could both protect these majestic primates and generate economy-boosting revenues. Their Mountain Gorilla Project, implemented over Fossey's objections, proved successful, with recent gorilla censuses showing dramatic population increases. Weber and Vedder's fascinating account of their years in Rwanda describes thrilling, sometimes heart-breaking gorilla encounters, and analyzes their painful relationships with Fossey with bracing honesty. But the book's larger, and more complex, subject is conservation in a war-ravaged postcolonial world struggling with increased competition for finite resources. Weber and Vedder ably portray Rwandan society, fraught with ethnic divisions and governmental corruption that not only threatened wildlife conservation but imperiled human safety. Their description of the 1994 genocide of Tutsis by Hutus based on reports from friends still in the country at the time is a chilling reminder that humans, too, are a fragile species. "We can't love animals or save wildlife," Weber and Vedder conclude, "without understanding the social, economic, and political context in which conservation occurs." Though they concede that "complete understanding [of a different culture] is a myth," they argue persuasively for continued efforts to this end. Agent, Gloria Loomis. (Oct. 4)Forecast: If ever a conservation book gets attention, this will be it. The combination of intimate primate portraits; sociopolitical observation; scientific conflict; successful, sustained activism; and intercultural cooperation, with the help of a four-city tour, will attract readers of many stripes.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Here is the long-awaited update to the fate of mountain gorillas in Rwanda, as written by the married couple who joined Dian Fossey at her Karisoke research facility in the late 1970s. Although Fossey's is the more familiar name owing to her groundbreaking contact with the gorilla and subsequent grief over their deaths because of poaching, Weber and Vedder have ultimately accomplished far more to insure their survival. Unlike Fossey, they believe that the key to saving the gorilla is to create an ecotourism program that will benefit the Rwandan people. Much of the book is a detailed account of both field research and the political challenges of establishing the Mountain Gorilla Project, but the final chapters are devoted to a chilling portrait of mass genocide in the early 1990s. This important book is a case study in how conservation must be grounded in the realities of people: "We can't love animals or save wildlife without understanding the social, economic, and political context in which conservation occurs." Highly recommended for both academic and public libraries. Beth Clewis Crim, Prince William P.L., VA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In 1978 a young American couple traveled to Rwanda to study mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey. The following 23 years brought poachers, Fossey's murder, and the bloody Rwandan genocide, but through it all the gorillas preserved their quiet lives. This exciting chronicle of field research conducted in extremely harsh terrain will open the reader's eyes to the difficulties of science in a wilderness area. Weber and Vedder write evocatively of the discoveries they made, the joys of sitting with the gorillas and observing their behavior, and interactions with their local Rwandan guides and fellow researchers. This is contrasted with their horror at discovering gorillas massacred by poachers. Their candid views of the difficult and neurotic Fossey show the disintegration of a once great scientist and demonstrate why the authors took a different and ultimately successful path in protecting the gorillas. The final chapters, describing the civil war in Rwanda and the resulting slaughter of the Tutsi minority make even more miraculous the fact that all sides during the conflict left the gorillas alone. A marvelously thoughtful account. Nancy Bent
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