“Reads like a crime novel.” NEUES DEUTSCHLAND

“Thorough and disarmingly fully of facts.” SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG

“What matters more, biodiversity or human rights? And how could both be thought together if local knowledge were taken into account? These are the questions Simone Schlindwein's book focuses on. Her extensive research on national parks in Congo and Uganda leads to uncomfortable insights. In doing so, she addresses the glorified image of Africa as well as the questionable funding policies of the Western world with equal commitment and knowledge.” JURY OF THE LEIPZIG BOOK FAIR AWARD

★ Nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Award!
★ When conservation is prioritised over human rights.
★ How Nature in Africa Is Being Protected at the Expense of People – and How the West Is Involved.
★ Sample English translation available.

More and more natural areas around the world are being placed under protection. That sounds like an important contribution towards saving the planet. But millions of people live in these areas. In the Global South, the poorest of society are being deprived of much of their fertile farmland. Does biodiversity come at the expense of human rights?

Simone Schlindwein spent more than a year researching in Congo and Uganda. She reports on how national parks are being turned into fortresses and how highly equipped gamekeepers are increasingly using violence against indigenous people and local farmers. Western countries such as Germany are involved as donors, whose arms companies also profit from the militarisation of nature conservation. Yet there are African alternatives to Western concepts of protection. An eye-opening book.

Simone Schlindwein
born in 1980, is the taz newspaper’s correspondent for the Great Lakes region: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Central African Republic and South Sudan. From 2006 to 2008 she was, among other things, Moscow correspondent for the news website SPIEGEL. For her work she has been awarded the journalism prize “Der lange Atem” and the Otto Brenner Prize. Her books include Dictators: Europe’s Bouncers (with Christian Jakob) and Congo Crime Scene (with Dominic Johnson and Bianca Schmolze).