Understanding pattern and process in diversity is the first step toward preserving it, but Field Museum research does not stop there. Sustained efforts are devoted to finding the ecological connections between human behavior and the protection of the natural world. In Africa, as elsewhere, conservation faces many challenges: human needs that put heavy pressure on the landscape, scarce funds and staff, political instability. In a region inhabited by hundreds of localized ethnic groups, and continued globalized resource extraction, the daunting problems of cultural erosion and conflict are widespread. With their African counterparts and other members of the international community, Field Museum scientists are dedicated to detecting crucial linkages between human lifeways and biological wealth, and to translating this knowledge into conservation action.

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