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Wildlife Conservation 野生动物保护 本文作者相信，再过几十年，野外的大猩猩、黑猩猩、猩猩等会统统消失，人类只能在动物 园里才能看到自己的这些近亲。然而动物园就是野生动物的诺亚方舟吗？野生动物保护不是一个新鲜话题，新鲜的是，作者认为保护野生动物的关键是在妇女教育上加大投入。 In my children's lifetimes1, I believe gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans2 will all become extinct in the wild3. So the question we have to ask ourselves is this4: do we want our children to see only in zoos what5 used to exist in the real world? It is the great apes6 that will disappear first, because there are so few of them left7, and because they're so vulnerable to changes in their habitats8. Many of the threats to these animals9 result from a global economy not local pressures.10 The threat to the orangutan in Indonesia, for example, is largely a result of deforestation11 and the risks to12 primates in Africa result from the timb er-trade and the demand for bush-meat13. The two work together14: logging opens up the forest, which means that the bush-meat can be got out fast, to15 Kinshasa16 or to London. If we want to avoid the disaster scenario17, people in developed countries will have to take a global perspective18 and accept responsibility for19 the damage export crops20 such as timber, coffee, cut flowers21 or even green beans22, do to the environment. The challenge23 is to avoid simply imposing western attitudes24 on local peoples. Already there are no truly wild places left in the world. Looking at wildlife ha s become the preserve25 of the middle classes over the last twenty-odd26 years, and as wild animals become even rarer, so more tourists want to see them. But tour ism alone27 plainly cannot conserve28 the world's animals; economic development is the priority29. For the future, I suspect that if you30 really want to do something about31 wild life conservation, you would be better off32 putting your money into33 women's ed ucation rather than just into the protection of flagship34 species. Women often b ear the direct costs of wildlife conflict; their knowledge of how to deal with conflict and how to control their own reproductive destinies35 may yet determine the survival of many threatened species36. (From CAM: Cambridge Alumni Magazine, No. 28, 1999) 我相信，在我孩子们的有生之年，大猩猩、黑猩猩和猩猩会在野外全部灭绝。因此我们得扪心自问：难道我们想让自己的孩子只能在动物园里看到原本存在于真实世界里的动物吗？最先消失的将是这些大猿，因为它们已所剩无几，而且一旦栖息地发生变化，它们很容易受到伤害 。 这些动物面临的威胁许多是全球性经济造成的，并非来自当地压力。例如在印度尼西亚，猩猩面临的威胁主要是砍伐森林造成的；在非洲，对灵长类动物的威胁源自木材贸易和对野生动物肉的需求。二者相互配合：伐木打开了森林，这意味着野生动物肉可以很快运出去，销往金沙萨或伦敦。 要想避免灾难局面的发生，发达国家的人必须从全球角度看问题，并为木材、咖啡、鲜花甚至菜豆之类出口作物对环境造成的危害承担责任。需要谨慎的是，应避免简单地把西方的立场强加于当地人民。 目前世界上已经没有真正的荒野了。在过去的二十多年里，观赏野生动物已成为中产阶级的专有权，随着野生动物变得更加稀少，想看野生动物的游客会更多。但是单靠旅游业显然不可能保护世界上的动物；经济发展才是首要任务。 我认为，为了未来，人们要是真想在野生动物保护方面做一些事，最好还是把钱投在妇女教育上，而不仅仅用于保护那些带象征意义的重要物种。妇女常常承受着与野生动物发生冲突的直接代价；她们是否知道如何应对冲突，能否掌握自己的生育命运，有可能决定着许多濒危物种的生存。（选自《剑桥校友杂志》1999年第28期）
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