Are You Optimistic We Can Save the Planet?

A Conservation Notebook has plenty of Paul in it, but it’s not intended to be a memoir. Nor is it a history of the modern conservation movement.

This highly personal volume from the former head of Creative Services for WWF International wanders from crowded UN conference rooms in Rio to simple farmers in Bhutan, to coral reefs in Micronesia and the Philippines to the wild regions of Indonesian New Guinea where outsiders want a piece of a poor farmer’s soul to the rainforests of Borneo where indigenous tribesmen fight for their land. From a mythical sacred mountain in India to holy groves in Burma to an ecological war zone in Zimbabwe, from brave people with good intentions to nasty folks with greed tarnishing their hearts.

Warning. This book contains no finger-wagging lectures, not too many depressing statistics, and no easy solutions.

It is a collection of adventures, encounters, traveler’s tales, outlying ideas, commentaries, and observations reflecting five decades of work in the nature conservation wonderland, linked by the theme that nature is too important to ignore.