Books By Edward O. Wilson

	THE FUTURE OF LIFE
ON HUMAN NATURE Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction
	THE ANTS Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction
SOCIOBIOLOGY: THE NEW SYNTHESIS
	THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE
CONSILIENCE
	NATURALIST

1. In The Future of Life, you discuss the role non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are playing in preserving biologically diverse "hot spots" and wildernesses around the world. How effective have these efforts been?
EOW: For their size and budgets, remarkably effective. Developing countries, with most of the hot spots, are now aware of them, and progress is being made in establishing appropriate reserves. A few sizeable blocks of tropical forest wilderness have also been set aside. But the total effort is in the earliest stage, and there is a long way to go.

2. Are NGOs capable of accomplishing their goals without a larger government intervention?
EOW: Not all, by any means. The NGOs are the spearhead of the global conservation movement, innovating new scientific approaches and economic strategies, but their budgets are limited. Eventually governments will have to do the heavy lifting.

3. Are there any nations leading the way in long-term conservation efforts?
EOW: At the governmental level, Costa Rica has made conservation and sustainable management of its natural resources its highest priority. It has led the way for developing countries, which hold most of the world's biological riches.

4. You also mention the GPI (genuine progress indicator) in The Future of Life. Are this and other environmental/economic ideas gaining support in the international economic community?
EOW: The idea has been put into play, but as yet with little effect in the industrialized world.

5. What level of support would be necessary to implement such a fundamental change?
EOW: Less than many might think. For example, as little as $28 billion in a single investment would provide at least a temporary shield for over half of the world's endangered species. That's only a thousandth of the annual world gross product.

6. Given globalization's encouragement of capital flight to unregulated locations, has there been any movement towards universal environmental standards? Is this necessary?
EOW: Yes, of course. The Convention on Biological Diversity, inaugurated during the Rio Earth Summit and signed by most countries (one exception: the U.S.) covers most of the initiatives needed for global conservation, in principle if not in practice.

7. What lessons can we learn from the results of the Kyoto protocol?
EOW: That the U.S. is critical for the success of such agreements, and also they require a spirit of environmental global concerns not yet achieved in this country.

8. At the recent World Economic Forum meeting in New York, there seemed to be a larger representation of ecological and developmental issues usually associated with protestors outside. Do you think this is indicative of a trend to take these concerns more seriously?
EOW: Emphatically yes. The environment is moving onto the economic and political stage, and will become a dominant concern out of sheer necessity. Not even the most blinkered of economists and political ideologues can ignore it much longer.

9. The Future of Life also points out the link between economic development and conservation issues in third world countries. Are these issues being factored in by global economic institutions?
EOW: Yes, to a limited degree. The World Bank and Global Environment Facility are among institutions and programs that are now engaged, and, on the flip side, the global conservation NGOs are incorporating more plans for economic development.

10. Have you begun working on your next book? What do you haveplanned?
EOW: Yes: on superorganisms, especially insect colonies. But I haven't left biodiversity conservation; everything comes back to that.