BOOK REVIEW by The Editor
Wildlife Crisis, hy H.R.H. The Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh, and James Fisher. With forewords by H.R.H.
Prince Bernhard and Peter Scott, and an epilogue by
Stewart L. Udall. (Published with the co-operation of
the World Wildlife Fund by Hamish Hamilton Ltd.,
London, 1970, at £4.20).
I feel that this is one of the most important books to
have been published in the last few years. It is almost
worth its price just for the foreward by H.R.H. the Prince
of the Netherlands, President of the W.W.F. This foreword
is a clearly expressed explanation of just what conservation
is. There are no flights of rhetoric in this foreword, no
accumulation of cliches for literary effect, — it is an
outspoken statement of the case in good, plain English, that
will be understood by all, and it is the kind of writing I
appreciate.
Such a good foreword does not, however, in any way
overshadow the rest of the book; it does as it should by
paving the way for the main text. There is a good, concise
preface by H.R.H. Prince Philip, followed by his long chapter
on Life and Wildlife. Peter Scott tells us that the Duke
will have no truck with ghost writers; he wrote all his
contribution in longhand, and absorbing reading it makes.
What Prince Philip has to say is autobiographical; it tells
of how he became involved with the conservation movement
through an increasing interest in bird photography. He goes
on to examine the causes of destruction of our environment,
pollution, population explosion, sheer thoughtlessness and
so on, then examines our attitude of mind to all these
problems, and tries to point to solutions.
James Fisher, whose recent death is such a loss to
natural history and conservation, takes up the tale. He
describes a "System for Paradise", and outlines the work of
the WWF and the IUCN (international Union for the Conservation
of Nature and Natural Resources). He goes on to give a very
full account of all that is being done in the world to set up
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