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

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.

“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

“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

NATURE | APES & MONKEYS $26.95

When acclaimed author Deni Béchard learned of the last living bonobos—matriarchal great apes that are, alongside chimpanzees, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom—he was astonished. How could we accept the disappearance of this majestic species, along with the rainforest it calls home?

As he looked more closely, Béchard discovered that one relatively small organization, the Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI), has done more to save bonobos than a number of far larger organizations. In contrast to many traditional conservation groups, BCI does not impose a system on Congolese communities. It approaches conservation as a process of exchange, in which the rainforest&;s people teach conservationists to understand the local culture and ecosystem. BCI then partners with village leaders, helping them strengthen their communities and address the unemployment and lack of education that lead to the hunting of bonobos. The result is a truly postcolonial model of conservation. And because the local people feel that it emerges from their culture, they replicate its projects independently.

The struggle to prevent the extinction of bonobos is far from easy, to be sure. The Congo has been devastated by war and aggressive resource extraction, and its people are often skeptical of foreign intervention. But Béchard&;s moving account—based on travels in the Congo and hundreds of interviews—reminds us that poverty does not equate to ignorance, that change requires more than wealth and power, and that only through collaboration can we make conservation go viral.

Deni Béchard is the author of a memoir, Cures for Hunger, and a novel, Vandal Love, which won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers&; Prize. He has traveled in over fifty countries and reported from India, Rwanda, Afghanistan, and Northern Iraq. He has written for a wide range of publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Outside, and Salon.com. When not abroad, he lives in New York.

Author photo by Tracy Motz
Cover design by Christian Fuenfhausen
Bonobo image © Christian Ziegler, National Geographic
Rainforest image © Getty Images

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