Assessing the conservation status of species is essential for implementing appropriate conservation measures. A lack of evidence of threats, rather than showing an absence of impacts, could reflect a lack of studies on how human activities could result in species population declines. The range of Prince Bernhard's titi monkey Plecturocebus bernhardi is restricted to the Arc of Deforestation, a deforestation hotspot in south-eastern Amazonia. Despite this, it is categorized as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. To reassess the conservation status of P. bernhardi, we carried out surveys during 2015–2017 to delimit the geographical distribution of the species and estimate its population density and abundance. We then used spatial predictive modelling to examine future habitat and population loss within its range. Plecturocebus bernhardi occurs over an area of 131,295 km2. Its mean group size was 2.8 individuals/group and its density 10.8 individuals/km2 and 3.8 groups/km2. Habitat loss was estimated to be 58,365 km2 (44.5% of its current range) over the next 24 years (three P. bernhardi generations) under a conservative governance model of deforestation and 105,289 km2 (80.2%) under a business-as-usual model. These numbers indicate that P. bernhardi is threatened and should be categorized as Vulnerable, at least, using the IUCN Red List criteria. We recommend the reassessment of other Least Concern primate species from the Arc of Deforestation using a similar approach.

The state of Borno, in Nigeria, is trying to increase its dwindling crocodile populations. In 1976 the State wildlife authorities confiscated fifteen crocodiles that were being illegally kept, and used them to augment a low population in a game reserve. This proved successful, and in 1979 they followed it with another successful translocation, this time of 20 crocodiles born and bred in Kyarimi Park Zoo of which the author was Curator. The latest news is that a third translocation is planned from a record batch of 112 bred in the Kyarimi Park Zoo.

Because the salamander Megalobatrachus davidianus makes sounds like a baby crying, its common name in China is ‘baby fish’. The largest amphibian now in existence, it may grow to 180cm in length and weigh up to several dozen catties (1 catty = ½kg); one specimen caught in Hunan Province weighed 65kg. It is one of three salamander species belonging to the Cryptobranchidae. The other two, Cryptobranchus japonicus in Japan and C. alleganiensis in the eastern United States, are similar to the Chinese species in shape and size, but the American one is much smaller.

Morocco still has wild areas and wildlife to save. But conservation is linked with forestry and where there is conflict forestry takes priority, says the author, who spent six months there in 1975 on a WWF commission. Destruction of birds as well as their habitat was widespread. The need for outside help to provide conservation education particularly in the forest service is urgent.

Here I examine how conservation organizations responded to a crisis environment in Zimbabwe. Since c. 2000 Zimbabwe has gone through a political, social and economic crisis that has led to reduced support for, and in some cases disengagement by, international and regional conservation organizations. I explore five response types on a continuum of disengagement and propose lessons for wider conservation practice. The lessons include the need to recognize that political discourse often excludes biodiversity conservation and therefore any conservation decisions based on political expediency run the risk of impeding conservation progress. Progress in conserving biodiversity requires sustained investment regardless of changing political circumstances. Such investment should include support for institutional development, local engagement, and accountability that engenders ownership of local conservation initiatives. I conclude that conservation organizations must take a long-term view of conservation and commitment to enhance conservation outcomes. This kind of engagement must be adaptive instead of based on a wait-and-see attitude or other forms of disengagement, as has been seen in Zimbabwe. Conservation organizations that disengage do so at the risk of further loss of biodiversity in some of the most biodiverse but unstable places.

For some years past I have had a feeling that our approach to the conservation of the flora and fauna all over the world, but especially in Africa, has been too static. This does not fit in well with the natural situations which we want to perpetuate, for they are nearly all dynamic situations. Admittedly we have moved our standpoint to some extent recently: for instance, the idea that particular species endangered by advancing civilization could survive by giving them individual protection has been generally discarded in favour of conserving the habitats in which such species live and which are prerequisites to their continued existence. But there is still much emphasis on trying to retain the status quo, say in a national park or strict natural reserve, by putting around it a real or symbolic fence and regarding the area and its ecology as sacrosanct and there for ever. And yet wherever a particular ecological situation has been studied, whether it is hinged on elephants or earthworms, the conclusion is always reached that it is dynamic–subject to continual change of balance of populations, of food relations, of chemistry and physics of the environment. Indeed nature will never stand still however much we might sometimes wish it to; and on top of all the natural changes are others imposed by mankind.

We describe the distribution of the coconut crab Birgus latro, categorized as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List, local perspectives towards the species, and its conservation needs on the Nicobar Islands in the eastern Indian Ocean. The species is threatened with extinction across most of its range and in India it is found only on a few islands in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelagoes. We carried out informal discussions with Nicobari communities to examine issues regarding conservation of the species and conducted timed searches in areas where coconut crabs were likely to be found. The discussions revealed that there are social taboos against hunting the coconut crab on most of the Nicobar Islands. However, on some islands these taboos are not being followed and community members may hunt the crab for consumption. Athough the coconut crab is legally protected under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act none of the villagers were aware of this. Of the six islands surveyed we recorded the presence of 17 and 14 crabs on two islands, respectively. On four islands villagers reported the presence of the crab prior to the tsunami of 2004, and on two of these islands the species may now be locally extinct. A small population size and a fragmented distribution in areas of coconut plantations suggest that the species is threatened. We recommend monitoring and detailed research on the ecology and genetics of the coconut crab, along with community-based conservation initiatives to conserve the species and its habitat.

On the 15th of September, 1835, a young naturalist landed on Chatham, the most easterly island of the Galapagos archipelago: he was none other than Charles Darwin, and it was there he first came into contact with the facts over which he pondered during the immortal voyage of the Beagle and which his genius translated into theories on evolution.

Until the middle of the present century Mongolia was little affected by man, in the sense of interference with and distortion of the natural environment. In 1918 the population of this 600,000-square-mile country was only 640,000, with 9.6 million domestic animals. (The comparable figures today are 1,300,000 and 23.4 million). Thanks to this lack of interference and the protective measures of the Mongolian People's Republic, Mongolia still has some of the rarest of the world's mammals, notably wild horse and camel, Gobi bear and Asian wild ass. The most threatened of them is the Przewalski horse, which some scientists think is extinct. But the two authors believe that it survives in small numbers. They urge the need for large reserved areas where livestock, which compete for the horses' grazing and water, can be eliminated.

The prospect of game-farming or game-cropping is very much in the news in parts of Africa to-day, as a means of conserving wild life and at the same time managing it so as to provide a supply of meat and other animal products. It is, therefore, very interesting to see how the Russians have succeeded in rescuing from extermination an animal only recently in grave danger of becoming extinct, and in converting it, in the space of a few years, into a major national resource. The animal at the centre of this exciting and encouraging story is the saiga, a small steppe antelope (Saiga tatarica). Sometimes called the big-nosed saiga, this antelope is found only in the U.S.S.R. It has a body length of 120 to 135 cm., stands 75 to 80 cm. at the shoulder, and weighs 40 to 45 kg. Its natural habitat is the steppe, an environment eminently suitable for a population of social ungulates.

When the authors visited Taiwan in 1988 they discovered that much of the rhino horn on sale there had come from South Africa. Since then action by the South African Government and Taiwanese Customs has stopped these illegal imports. A return visit in 1990 revealed that the same is not true of horn from Asian rhinos; demand for this is increasing and wealthy Taiwanese, aware that prices will rise even higher as rhinoceros numbers decline, are buying it as an investment. Although imports of rhino horn have been prohibited in Taiwan since 1985, the smuggling goes on, encouraged by the fact that domestic sales of horn still continue despite a total ban initiated in 1989.

In 1949 work commenced on the most ambitious development scheme so far carried out in Ceylon, for the opening up of some 400,000 acres of forest for agricultural and industrial purposes. The whole scheme comes under the auspices of an autonomous body “The Gal Oya Development Board”. A dam has been built across the Gal Oya, which is a perennial river, to form, a vast reservoir, the largest in the island, covering some 35·8 square miles. Large tracts of forest-land have been cleared for cultivation and settlement and a net-work of roads and distributory channels has been constructed.