I recently talked with Amy Vedder, one of our nation’s foremost experts on wildlife and wilderness conservation. She’s the vice president of the Wilderness Society, and made her name in environmental circles by starting — with her husband Bill Weber — perhaps the first ecotourism project in the world: the Mountain Gorilla Project. She and Bill recently published In the Kingdom of Gorillas, describing their groundbreaking work in Rwanda with this Fragile Species in a Dangerous Land, as the subtitle spells it out.

Despite her prominence, I was able to get her alone for an hour, talking about things that are important to me. You see, she’s my sister. And we were attending a family reunion. My brother-in-law videotaped our discussion, so you can listen to the whole thing if you’re interested. (I’ll be blogging about it for the next four days, and my brother-in-law Luciano‘s four YouTube videos will correspond to my posts). See it here–Sister Talk: A Discussion with Nancy Vedder-Shults and Amy Vedder–or at the end of this post.

Before accepting her position at the Wilderness Society, Amy managed wildlife conservation programs in over 100 projects on four continents while serving as Director and Vice President of the Wildlife Conservation Society. She initiated a program entitled “Living Landscapes,” in which large-scale conservation efforts extend beyond the borders of parks and reserves in order to meet the needs of wildlife species as well as the people in nearby areas. She and Bill realized the importance of the human connection in conservation efforts while working in Rwanda, and always try to create win-win situations for the animals and the people in their projects.

Amy and Bill’s initial interest in saving the mountain gorillas began while they were in the Peace Corps in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. When they told their Zairean students that they would return to protect these animals, the kids asked them why they didn’t just safeguard gorillas in U.S. forests. Bill and Amy realized then that a good part of their work would need to involve education. That’s where my conversation with Amy started, because I’m always reminded of a Diane Ackerman quote when thinking about the Mountain Gorilla Project. Ackerman says:

My strategy is to celebrate. I believe that if you can cause someone to fall in love with an animal or a landscape, they won’t want to lose it. They’ll fight to protect it.

In the past Amy had told me that when Rwandan kids discovered that the mountain gorillas only lived in their country (and nearby Burundi and Congo), they became much more protective of these animals. And they even developed some civic pride concerning these rare creatures in their own backyards.

In our recent discussion, Amy added that it makes a huge difference when people view any animal species in the wild. People’s immediate fascination is palpable, and ultimately such contacts change them so they care more about the wildlife and their habitats.

Amy added that when something is scarce or rare, it also affects people’s perceptions of such animals or wilderness areas. The flora and fauna become special. And people realize they can make a difference, that it’s up to them if these creatures survive or not.

There have always been strong cultural taboos surrounding the use of scarce animals and other “resources.” According to Amy, you often find such prohibitions on islands, since everything is much more limited when the land you inhabit is just so many square miles. We all know about the Easter Island culture — which used up key natural resources and ceased to exist — but it’s actually among Pacific Islanders where you find many of these taboos. For instance, if something was rare, it had to belong to the king. Or it took on a sacred function, such as sacred groves within rare forest lands.

Unfortunately, the flip side of this coin has also been true: people misuse habitats and natural resources when they don’t realize that they’re limited. Euro-Americans have a taboo surrounding picking the last flower or berry or fruit. But Amy suggested that we adopt a Native American custom instead — To never pick the first fruit… at least until you know there’s enough not to threaten its extinction.