Species conservation is a human problem
JOURNALIST MICHELLE NIJHUIS crystallizes the human urgency around conservation in her new book, Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction. Despite its title, the book is anchored in the narratives of the people, not just the other living creatures, who have shaped the last century or so of the conservation movement.
In luminous and detailed prose, Nijhuis, who has written for HCN for more than two decades and is a contributing editor for the magazine, charts the ongoing story of the conservation movement and its pivotal characters. There have been victories and major disappointments, and Nijhuis doesn’t shy away from the dark side, including a legacy of eugenics and settler-colonialism. For her, acknowledging such complexity is essential to the future of conservation if it is to be successful.
The book is a series of profiles, presented chronologically,
