AT THE HAND OF MAN: Peril and...

AT THE HAND OF MAN: Peril and Hope for Africa’s Wildlife by Raymond Bonner (Vintage: $12; 322 pp.). In this provocative study, reporter Raymond Bonner details the political machinations that led to the CITES ban on ivory trading, and draws an unflattering portrait of the inner workings of the World Wildlife Fund. Bonner argues that the governments of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana should be allowed to cull elephants from their well-managed herds and use the revenue from hides and ivory to finance conservation efforts, but he acknowledges that massive poaching occurred under similar arrangements in the past. The greatest threat to Africa’s wildlife is not hunting but unchecked population growth: Bonner maintains that if the industrialized nations insist that Africans preserve the native fauna as a “world heritage,” they must also provide adequate compensation.