At the urging of environmental groups, bilateral and multilateral development agencies are trying to save biological diversity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. There are few results to show so far, in part because most projects are barely under way. Unfortunately, there is little reason to expect major pay offs in the future. This paper contains a critical examination of donor agencies' efforts on behalf of biodiversity conservation in South America. We argue that the campaign is faltering for five reasons. First, it is concentrated too much on the Amazon Basin. Second, projects often reflect wishful thinking about local communities' regard for natural ecosystems. Third, many biodiversity projects involve an attempt to transplant national parks, a rich-country institution, to an alien setting. Fourth, the strong link between renewable resource mining and economic activity in frontier areas is ignored. Fifth, complementarities between economic development and ecosystem conservation are not being exploited. A major thrust of the campaign should be to improve production, income, and employment in other areas, including cities, towns, and places where agriculture is already well established. Unless this is done, the campaign to save biodiversity will fail.
