Edited by Ghazala Shahabuddin and Mahesh Rangarajan, Making Conservation Work "articulates a new, urgent discourse on conservation". The book contains a comprehensive introduction by the editors and eight papers, including two by NCF scientists Aparajita Datta, Divya Mudappa, & Shankar Raman.

Excerpts about NCF's work from the introduction:

"Increasingly, specific conservation action and advocacy is being based on rigorous biological and social studies and hands-on experience. In this volume, we bring together several conservationists who are evolving innovative research-based practices. In fact, such a compilation has been possible partly because of a welcome trend in the area of natural resource studies of 'scholars becoming doers'. The institutionalization of science-based interventions in different landscapes in South, North and Northeast India by groups like the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, is a significant development in Indian conservation (see Datta and Mudappa & Shankar Raman in this volume and Mishra et al. 2003)."

See Making Conservation Work to read Aparajita Datta's account of her community-based conservation programme with the resident Lisu people in Namdapha, Arunachal Pradesh. Also read about rainforest restoration and conservation on private lands in the Anamalai hills in the article by Divya & Shankar.