Marco Polo went to Myanmar in the 13th century and saw jungles teeming with wild beasts and unicorns. Centuries later, during British colonial times, Myanmar was renowned for its spectacular game hunting reserves. Today, however, widespread deforestation under the current military regime is destroying wildlife habitat. National parks account for a measly 1 percent of the country's total land area. And as for Marco Polo's "unicorn," the rhinoceros has all but vanished from what was once its stronghold in Asia. In short, the future of Myanmar's wildlife looks bleak. "Beyond the Last Village" chronicles one conservationist's search for hope in the country's remaining wilderness.
The book begins on a deceptively downbeat note. Alan Rabinowitz is director of the Science and Exploration Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in New York. Just as Myanmar's wildlife seems on the verge of giving up the ghost, so too does Rabinowitz. After years in the field collecting information on the world's disappearing species, Rabinowitz writes that this trip to Myanmar is "a last-ditch effort to convince myself that I still cared enough to try to make a difference in the world. That I still gave a damn."
Indeed, his first forays into Myanmar's jungles are depressing. Rabinowitz visits a former British game reserve that was to be a model park rivaling South Africa's famed Kruger Park: "I watched a villager proudly tack a fresh leopard cat skin to the outside wall of his house while, behind him, military trucks lumbered by, filled with newly felled trees from within the sanctuary."