A law passed in 2007 made it illegal to kill, sell, or consume primates in Equatorial Guinea. But with a desperately poor populace and a single monkey selling for $200 or more, how can this hold? As I stood in the market, one of the torch men motioned to a big male drill, about the size of my four-year-old son. The dead animal’s hand was held in the flame.

It looked just like mine.

I'm 45 years old now, and have been shooting since I was 19. But as I've aged and seen more of how the world works, I've grown more cynical. The question in the back of my mind is always the same: Will we make it? Will we preserve the remaining wildernesses that clean our water and air? Can we save the rain forest? The seas? Is there enough thoughtfulness within us to save ourselves in the long run? After three weeks in Africa, I'm doubtful.

We may win some battles, but we're losing this war. There are far too many of us, often poor and hungry, and nobody ever starved to save a forest—or a monkey. We are insatiable. I fear we'll use up everything, everywhere, until it's all gone.

But today in the Gulf of Guinea, on this one island, it's true that the number of primates in the market has decreased since the hunting ban. It's also true that this article in National Geographic will bring attention to a place that nobody has ever heard of, and that, in turn, may be enough to get the government of Equatorial Guinea to really protect the place. So in a big way, this is a positive story, one that's so needed now in a weary world. But as always, nothing is clear-cut, and we don't know how anything will turn out. And that's inconvenient. We like our dramas to be resolved in one sitting.

Just before flying out, I asked Tim Laman how he mentally deals with the environmental devastation he sees constantly and increasingly around the world. He smiled and explained that this is our time. Most of the world's biodiversity still remains, and so it's more important than ever to do everything we can, wherever we can, to save it, now. He said this RAVE is a perfect start.

He's right, of course. This is our time. Surely with this work, here on Bioko Island, we can fix this.

In other words, it's all up to us.

Now that makes me nervous.