As I’ve recently been receiving quite a number of books for review that are more toward the technical side of natural history – not beyond the readability of the interested amateur naturalist, mind you, but certainly written with the primary readership in mind being those who will put the books’ contents into use in their professional lives – I’ve decided to declare this Technical Week and give the most promising ones a bit of Newly Noted attention.
The first of these is International Wildlife Management; Conservation Challenges in a Changing World. Edited by John L. Koprowski and Paul R. Krausman, this recently published addition to the Wildlife Management and Conservation series from Johns Hopkins University Press takes up such often popularly discussed topics as “habitat loss, disease management, predator-human conflict, [and] illegal trade” in animal species from and for the perspectives of those addressing these challenges on an international level. In the included chapters, the authors take particular pains to draw “attention to underlying causes and strategies for mitigation that may look surprisingly similar from Montana to Zimbabwe.”
As one who often finds himself reading news reports, commentary, and other material on a wide range of wildlife conservation issues, many of which seem mind-bogglingly perplexing in their complexity and – from an amateur’s perspective – wholly beyond human capability to solve, I am very excited to see such a book as this now available that can provide not only an insight into how wildlife management professionals approach such challenges, but also that potential solutions are not only possible but are in fact already being tested and implemented in the field.
