Brice Lefaux and Jean Wollenschneider. Sauvons les Primates. Belin, Humensis
Brice Lefaux et Jean Wollenschneider. Sauvons les Primates. Belin, Humensis, Paris(2021), 364 p., ISBN 978-2-410-02256-8
Editor’s notes
This text is an invited book review.
Full text
1Six out of 10 primate species are threatened with extinction. Are we doing enough to protect them? No. Can we do better? Yes. Can we do it differently? Certainly.
2These are the questions Brice Lefaux asks and answers in Sauvons les Primates. Director of Mulhouse Zoological and Botanical Park for almost two decades, Lefaux is a veterinarian with extensive experience of primate conservation, both in the natural environment and in zoos. He is also a superb communicator. In Sauvons les Primates he aims to provide all the information relevant to primate conservation, in accessible language, and supported with citations, so that readers can understand the complexities involved and the need to change what we do to protect primates. He does so brilliantly.
3The book was designed and illustrated by Jean Wollenschneider, a graphic designer and visual communicator with a wonderful talent for capturing animals and their environments. The result is a large (360 page) volume, with beautiful colour illustrations. The visual effect and reader engagement are further enhanced with pull quotes and highlighted stories.
4The book comprises four main sections and a conclusion. Each section opens with a two-page illustration, while sub-sections open with a single page illustration. Many sub-sections begin with a personal story, immediately engaging the reader. The text is expertly crafted to combine review of carefully chosen scientific studies with hard-hitting numbers (e.g., almost 28 000 Malagasy lemurs have been captured and held in private homes or in hotels), and to appeal directly to the reader.
5Section 1 introduces primates and the biodiversity crisis. The first sub-section celebrates the diversity of primates, including their taxonomy, sociality, diet, and distribution across the world. I particularly liked the comments on anthropocentrism: having a large brain is not a sign of superiority relative to other species, and we are invited to imagine how a chimpanzee might approach the task of classifying primates. The second sub-section is a very clear explanation of the biodiversity crisis, extinction risk, and the current status of primates.
6Section 2 reviews the major threats to primates: deforestation, hunting, trade, climate change, and disease. We are reminded of our own responsibilities for the threats, and the need to understand and respect the people who live alongside primates. We can’t simply blame the people who live alongside primates for cutting trees or killing primates for the extinction crisis, when the products we consume in Europe destroy forests in the tropics and threaten primates. We encounter a naïve woman who bought a baby chimpanzee from a market, wishing to save it, but in fact contributed to a demand that threatens other chimpanzees. To help us to understand why people might kill primates, we are invited to imagine how a Kenyan scientist interested in rodents would be received if he remonstrated with French grain farmers for killing ‘rats’. The section clearly highlights the links between threats to primates and global inequalities and poverty and highlights the need for a multidisciplinary (ethnoprimatological) approach to relations between humans and primates, incorporating anthropology as well as biology.
7Section 3, the largest in the book, covers the protection of primate populations and their habitats. It opens by directly addressing fatalism in the face of the extinction crisis, reminding us that mountain gorillas, blue-eyed lemurs, Hainan gibbons, Roloway monkeys and lion tamarins still exist because of past and ongoing conservation efforts. A description of international conservation organisations and conventions, laws and regulations, protected areas, and hotspots follows. This includes an important reminder of the colonial heritage that pervades international conservation, whereby dominant cultures in Europe and North America idealise nature as separate from humans and assume that nature needs protection from ‘native’ people who will otherwise destroy it. Lefaux highlights the appalling superiority of the assumption that outsiders know how to protect an environment better than the people who live in it. These are vital messages if we are to have any hope of conserving primates long-term.
8Next, we read about conservation in situ, including the importance of researchers in conserving habitats and species (but the perils of relying on funds from the Global North), conservation education, and how anthropogenic degradation results in competition for resources between humans and primates. Again, Lefaux emphasises the need for an approach that includes cultural and social understanding of the people who share space with primates. I appreciated the direct question of whether it is appropriate for a French person in Indonesia to explain to Indonesians how they should change their behaviours.
9We move on to read about combatting trade in primates. This sub-section includes how selfies with primates contribute to the trade (‘likes which kill’) and the dangers of anthropomorphism for primate conservation. Laws exist, but a lack of understanding of wildlife crime by the forces tasked with preventing it hampers law enforcement, and an absence of political will to control trade in wild meat puts those that handle and eat it at risk of disease. When primates are rescued, sanctuaries are needed to house them, but have limited capacity and Lefaux notes the irony of investing huge sums to address the symptoms of a continuing trade. He highlights the work sanctuaries do to engage with authorities and in education to address the causes of these symptoms.
10The next sub-section addresses how we can protect forests, including the importance of protected areas and the awkward questions of who runs them, and who funds them. This sub-section highlights the need to fully include local human populations in the sustainable management of protected areas, reviews other models of protection, and the more general need for sustainable development. The focus on inclusion leads neatly on to the next sub-section on the potential for community conservation to link wellbeing, biodiversity, and sustainable development, and the lessons we can learn from previous failures and successes. Section 3 concludes with an analysis of ecotourism as a conservation solution, concluding that mass demand seems to be incompatible with conservation, and providing very helpful advice for tourists wishing to view primates responsibly.
11Section 4 addresses conservation ex situ and the role of zoos. It tackles common misconceptions and describes the different ways in which modern, progressive zoos contribute to conservation. Many conservation programmes, and this book, would not exist without such zoos. We learn about how zoos collaborate to breed threatened species, fund conservation programmes, facilitate research, educate visitors, and raise awareness of conservation issues. We read about rehabilitation and reintroduction programmes, distinguishing between reintroduction for conservation and for welfare, and noting the need to follow, and adapt, IUCN protocols to avoid exposing wild primates to danger. Noting that we can only reintroduce primates where there is suitable habitat, the section ends with the need for carefully planned reforestation.
12The final chapter is a manifesto. What can we do to save primates? Consume less, and wisely. Counteract trade. Never buy primates. Report any primates we see for sale. Think about the images we share and comment on. Consume less tropical timber. Choose certified, sustainable timber and palm oil. Choose recyclable phones and electric cars. Be eco-citizens.
13Sauvons les Primates is comprehensive, hopeful, and invites the reader to think critically about the complexities of primate conservation. It is very easy to read, even for this non-native speaker. All the explanations are clear, detailed, and supported by appropriate citations. They are enhanced by skillful use of examples and stories. The author’s passion for primates, their environments, and conservation shines through, as does his conviction that we must understand and respect the multidimensional interconnections between people and primates and fully include people in conservation if we are to save primates.
14It’s part of a reviewer’s role to think of ways in which a book could be improved. In this case, it’s a difficult task, but I noted some minor issues. It’s time we abandoned the term prosimians. It’s taxonomically outdated and overlooks the fascinating evolutionary lineage of the tarsiers. I’m also not keen on the use of anthropomorphic terms like ‘harem’, or ‘family’ (by which we mean a very heteronormative type of family) for primates, although I recognise that this is common practice.
15It’s great to see many individuals highlighted in the book. Initially, I thought that the name checks and examples were mainly people from the Global North (Karen Strier, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, etc.), while people from the Global South were mentioned, but less likely to be named. As I continued to read, I became less sure that was the case, but if it is, it reflects the distribution of resources in our discipline. The future of primates will only be secure when conservation leaders are from the countries that are home to primates. I would like to have seen a comment on this, linked to the themes of the colonial heritage of conservation.
16Finally, I was sad to see that an image on the last page portrays chimpanzees in human clothing, with no explanation to accompany it. This betrays earlier comments about the dangers anthropomorphism poses to primates. Fortunately, the reader will know this by the time they reach this page.
17In conclusion, Sauvons les Primates is a joy to read. It is the best book I have read which explains the complexity of the problems and solutions in primate conservation. It is a book for the general (French) public and contains many messages for primatologists and conservationists. I am grateful to Vincent Leblan and the editorial board of the Revue de Primatologie for the opportunity to review it. I strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in primates, conservation, or the role of modern zoos.
References
Electronic reference
Joanna M. Setchell, “Brice Lefaux and Jean Wollenschneider. Sauvons les Primates. Belin, Humensis”, Revue de primatologie [Online], 13 | 2022, Online since 13 December 2022, connection on 24 June 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/14334
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The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.
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