In his ‘Wildlife Betrayed’ Eugène Lapointe has produced a masterpiece of fact which explains how the international animal rights brigade has high-jacked CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) and how they have been changing the convention’s original purpose from being a regulator of the wildlife trade into one which prohibits it. One by one the author identifies the NGO culprits and explains how they operate. His knowledge about these NGOs, and how they have been undermining the convention’s purpose over the last 50 years, is astonishing. 

This is not a call to arms. But it is a warning about what we can expect to encounter on life’s road ahead. It is, therefore, an authoritative guide which provides factual information about the iniquities of these nefarious people, their organizations and their modus operandi. ‘Wildlife Betrayed’, therefore, leaves us better armed than we were before reading this masterpiece, and it provides the kind of ammunition we will need to use in the battles that loom ahead.  

Everyone who has even just a modicum of interest in the world’s wildlife, and in Planet Earth, needs to read this book. 

Ron Thompson
True Green Alliance Director

Wildlife needs to be conserved. There is little doubt about this premise, but the challenge is how. Simply prohibiting the use of animals and fish is appealing to the public and the media. Powerful NGOs promoted series of measures to prevent the use of wildlife. Had they succeeded in saving wildlife? Hardly.

They only succeeded in creating conflicts among various stakeholders and have made the lives of many peoples much difficult. It is not only wildlife but also ordinary people and communities that are betrayed by the simplistic but appealing campaign. Eugene Lapointe has been in the center of this controversy and if you feel committed to the conservation of wildlife, well-being of native and indigenous peoples, and welfare of rural and coastal communities, read Wildlife Betrayed.

Professor Joji Morishita, PhD
Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology

Having known Eugene Lapointe for many years, I have come to appreciate and admire his very knowledgeable, practical and common sense approach to environmental, particularly wildlife, conservation matters. His long and extensive practical experience with the issues backs his unemotional, economic approach that is far more realistically supportive of the world’s wildlife than the irrational, self-centred zealotry of the green-left who so loudly disparage him. Unlike his practical approach to the subject, their solutions are very rarely grounded in reality.

His latest work Wildlife Betrayed offers readers a very rational and practical approach to the vitally important subject of wildlife conservation. It is a very effective antidote to the irrational, ignorant and emotive nonsense being so vociferously peddled by too many of our planet’s self-proclaimed environmental crusaders. Anyone interested in learning the truth on the current state of the world’s wildlife would be well advised to carefully study Eugene Lapointe’s very important book.

Dr Neil Baird
Chairman of Baird Publications

Eugène Lapointe, outspoken former Secretary-General of CITES, has just released Wildlife Betrayed: Why prohibition is bad for conservation and development, a broadside assault on prohibitionist non-governmental organizations that campaign tirelessly – and with bags of money that rival American election campaigns – to prevent the sustainable use of wild animals in rural community development and wildlife conservation actions, particularly targeting international trade.

Lapointe’s viewpoint was shaped at an early age growing up in a Canadian forest hunting and trapping to supplement the family’s meal table. His outlook is pragmatic, based on “the laws of nature which govern the Wise Use of wildlife” with the guiding principle “Make the species of value, and people will make an effort to keep it.” No one is worried about cattle going extinct, but they are traded and eaten in great quantities. The same principle works with wildlife, if given the chance.

The book examines the Multilateral Game and where and how NGOs and CITES fit in, presents six in-depth case studies, and issues a call for the reform of CITES, which has been steered away from its core principles. Rather than adopting regulations that enable sustainable trade, CITES increasingly has been banning all trade, betraying wildlife by robbing it of value.

I would highly recommend that anyone wishing to understand CITES, the complex politics behind its operations and one informed view of what needs to be done to save it from irrelevance to read this book.

Daniel Stiles
Illegal Wildlife Trade Expert, Based in Nairobi, Kenya

When I heard that Eugene was writing a book, I was stunned because I have known him for over 20 years and he is one of the busiest men I know.

His concentration on conserving wildlife world wide and working with a wide team of colleagues around the globe has been an inspiration to me and I trust in what I do for wildlife.

Wildlife Betrayed is the best summary I have read of how Prohibiting the sustainable use of wildlife and what he calls the Multiple Game being played by NGOs and International Players is eroding wildlife abundance, diversity and presence in rural areas worldwide.  He also includes a section on how to “Take Back Control”. 

This is definitely a book worth reading and keeping available in your library as a reference and as a worthwhile re-read when questions arise.

Jim Beers
Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC.  He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands.  He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC.