The Bird of Time: The Science and Politics of Nature Conservation-A Personal Account

This book is a plea to everyone but especially to politicians, administrators, farmers and businessmen to take conservation seriously and as a result to integrate conservation with other activities. Through research work and land management the author shows how he came to realise that conservation matters much more fundamentally than is accepted by conventional wisdom. He maintains that the significance of conservation will not be recognised until it is seen within its proper contents of time and this provides the theme of the book. The newness of conservation as an idea and its complexities still provide obstacles to understanding its real significance. In the past too much emphasis has been put on the negative and esoteric aspects of conservation. This book is important because it emphasises its positive and common-sense aspects and in so doing demonstrates that conservation should now be accepted as a major national and international objective of vital concern to everybody now and in the future.