A Global Perspective on the Adirondack Park An Interview with Bill Weber

摘要

Returning from a trip to view mountain gorillas in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park, I sat down to reflect on the role of tourism in the conservation of this magnificent species. In Rwanda, one of the world's most densely populated countries, national parks and reserves stand as isolated patches amongst a patchwork of agricultural lands and people. During the 1970s, protected lands were seen as remnants of the colonial past, offering little to the welfare of a largely subsistence culture. The development of tourism was introduced as a way to generate revenue, employment, and political support for conservation. Some 30 years later, tourism now drives the regional economy, and from a population of barely 260 in 1978, the mountain gorillas have rebounded to more than 400 individuals today. Last year I interviewed Bill Weber, a pioneer of Rwanda's approach to primate conservation through tourism, to talk about his experiences working in both the tropical forests of Africa and the temperate forests of the Adirondacks. In the recent book The Great Experiment in Conservation: Voices from the Adirondack Park (Syracuse University Press, 2009), Bill and his wife Amy Vedder weighed in on the Adirondack Park as a model for global conservation. In the final chapter they write, "If there is a single lesson ...to learn from the Adirondacks it is the role of the private sector in assuring a more diversified economic base, with a greater percentage of benefits staying in local hands within the regional economy." I explored with Bill some of his recommended "to do" and "not to do" lessons for 21st century conservation.