Overview

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.

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9781571313409

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Advance Praise for Empty Hands, Open Arms <br> 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. <br>--Robert Coles, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, MacArthur Fellow, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom <br> I highly recommend Empty Hands, Open Arms! I have long been enchanted by the bonobos, so much so that a few years ago I adopted two bonobo babies whose mothers had been killed for bush meat. Readers of this book will be entertained and moved by Deni Bechard's stories about this remarkable endangered and irreplaceable species and those dedicating their lives to saving them, On top of this, they will be informed and enlightened about the Congo, its lush forests, its tragic history, and its peoples' struggle to build a sustainable future. <br>--Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade, Sacred Pleasure, and The Real Wealth of Nations <br> Reading Empty Hands, Open Arms brought me nearly to tears of despair for the desperate, desperate situation of bonobos, the world's most endearing and endangered great apes--and then again to tears of joyful admiration for the brave and smart people working to save them in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Buy this book, and you will discover a seed of hope in our time's garden of despair. <br>--Dale Peterson, author of The Moral Lives of Animals and Jane Goodall: the Woman who Redefined Man <br> In this compelling and inspirational account, Bechard chronicles the visionary work being done to protect the bonobo and the world's second largest rainforest--the 'left lung' of the planet that produces much of the oxygen needed to sustain life on Earth. <br>--Chip Comins, Founder, Chairman & CEO, American Renewable Energy Institute <br> Empty Hands, Open Arms is the embodimen

Author Information

Deni Bechard'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.

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