# Empty Hands, Open Arms: The Race to Save Bonobos in the Congo and Make Conservation Go Viral - Hardcover

by **Deni Ellis Bechard** (Author)

**When acclaimed author Deni Béchard first learned of the last living bonobos--matriarchal great apes that are, alongside the chimpanzee, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom--he was completely astonished. How could the world possibly accept the extinction of this majestic species?**

Béchard discovered one relatively small NGO, the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI), which has done more to save bonobos than many far larger organizations. Based on the author's extensive travels in the Congo and Rwanda, this book explores BCI's success, offering a powerful, truly postcolonial model of conservation. In contrast to other traditional conservation groups Béchard finds, BCI works closely with Congolese communities, addressing the underlying problems of poverty and unemployment, which lead to the hunting of bonobos. By creating jobs and building schools, they gradually change the conditions that lead to the eradication of the bonobos.

This struggle is far from easy. Devastated by the worst military conflict since World War II, the Congo and its forests continue to be destroyed by aggressive logging and mining. Béchard's fascinating and moving account--filled with portraits of the extraordinary individuals and communities who make it all happen offers a rich example of how international conservation must be reinvented before it's too late.

### Front Jacket

Here is the matter of conservation given profound explanation--a searching and knowing consideration that enables an important social and political and cultural struggle in Africa to become a needed lesson for us who live elsewhere to ponder, take to heart.  
**\--Robert Coles,** Pulitzer Prize-winning author and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

"Into the Congo, this adventure reveals not a heart of darkness but a rich world of light, shade, and imperiled life, a connection between the human and the great circle of being."  
**\--James Engell,** Editor of _Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology_ and Faculty Associate of the Harvard University Center for the Environment

"An inspired, poignant, and seriously researched look at a subject of profound importance."  
**\--Wade Davis,** National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and author of _The Serpent and the Rainbow_

"A story that movingly illuminates the time we live in, a tale of an emblematic struggle in which the fate of all of us and our future on this planet are at stake."  
**\--Bruce Rich,** author of _Mortgaging the Earth_ and _To Uphold the World_

"An emotionally-enthralling, nuanced voyage into the conundrums of bonobo conservation."  
**\--William Powers,** author of _Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa's Fragile Edge_

"A brilliant example of how conservationists can work with communities to save not only their own immediate environments but also the world at large through courage, cooperation, and compassion."  
**\--Grant Hayter-Menzies,** author of _Imperial Masquerade_ and _Shadow Woman_

"Readers of this book will be entertained and moved by Deni Béchard's stories about this remarkable endangered and irreplaceable species and those dedicating their lives to saving them."  
**\--Riane Eisler,** author of _The Chalice and the Blade_ and _The Real Wealth of Nations_

"The embodiment of the type of reporting that we dream of reading, but all too rarely encounter--intelligent, engaged, and above all, astonishingly perceptive."  
**\--Dinaw Mengestu,** MacArthur Fellow and author of _The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears_

"Béchard's riveting journey through the 'dark continent' provides a surprisingly uplifting story about a radically different and successful conservation program."  
**\--David Suzuki,** author of _The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature_

### Author Biography

**Deni Béchard**'s first novel, _Vandal Love_, won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He has also authored a memoir, _Cures for Hunger_, and written for a number of magazines and newspapers, among them the _LA Times_, _Salon_, _Outside_, the _National Post_, _VQR_, _Maisonneuve_, _Le Devoir_, the _Harvard Review_, and the _Harvard Divinity Bulletin_ . He has been a fellow at MacDowell, Jentel, the Edward Albee Foundation, Ledig House, the Anderson Center, and Vermont Studio Center, among others. He has done freelance reporting from Northern Iraq as well as from Afghanistan, and he has traveled in more than fifty countries.

**Number of Pages:** 320

**Dimensions:** 1.2 x 9.1 x 6.1 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** October 01, 2013

## Details

- **Price:** 26.95 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 26.95 USD | In stock |

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- Empty Hands, Open Arms: The Race to Save Bonobos in the Congo and Make Conservation Go Viral - Hardcover

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