When Lake Mburo National Park in Uganda was created in 1983, thousands lost their land and livelihoods. Three years later people reclaimed the land and set out to destroy the park and its wildlife. Reduced in size and settled throughout, the park seemed lost. This was the challenge faced by Mark Infield on arrival in Uganda as a young conservationist. A programme of recovery over a 10-year period proposed and implemented by the author and colleagues in Uganda National Parks used community conservation approaches, and today the park is saved and visited by thousands.

With this project as its primary focus, Beautiful Beasts, Beautiful Lands looks back at Mark's 30 years in conservation and asks the questions 'What really works?' and 'Why?' This is a personal account of the author's 30 years work in nature conservation, focused on the rise and fall and rise again of this national park.