Michelia lacei W.W. Smith, a magnolia species categorized as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, is subject to severe disturbance. We carried out field surveys and a review of literature records to present a detailed description of the current status of M. lacei. We then predicted the potential distribution of M. lacei under different climatic scenarios based on 60 occurrence records (53 recorded during our field surveys and 7 earlier records) and 19 bioclimatic variables from the WorldClim database. We selected 18 locations and four bioclimatic variables for model training. Temperature seasonality and annual temperature range were the most influential variables for predicting the potential distribution of the species. We used MaxEnt to model distribution under current climate conditions and four Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios in four future time periods to determine the effects of future climate change on the habitat suitable for the species. We predict areas of moderately and highly suitable habitat will gradually decrease over time. We recommend increased in situ and ex situ conservation efforts to mitigate this habitat decline and protect populations of M. lacei.

The author went to Niger in August–September 1972 to report and advise on the wildlife situation. This was as a result of a report by two residents, Mr and Mrs Barry Humphrey, describing the serious and continuing decline in Niger's wildlife, especially among the larger desert mammals, and the government's inability to raise the necessary money and manpower to protect it In particular, poaching in the W National Park in the south, and hunting mainly by Europeans in the Aïr Mountains in the north, where a large French mining company has concessions, are seriously depleting wildlife populations, notably addax and scimitar-horned oryx, both vulnerable species in the Red Data Book, and both desert-living species that can survive in the drought-ridden areas where cattle are dying and people starving. This article covers the gist of his report and recommendations.

Giant river otters were once widespread in the rivers and creeks of the greater Amazon Basin. Hunting for their skins caused many local extinctions and only small scattered populations now remain, although total numbers are unknown. It is seriously endangered in Colombia, and one of the places where it still occurs in any numbers, El Tuparro National Park, is becoming increasingly accessible to people, while the otter populations in adjacent rivers outside the park are even more vulnerable to poaching.

Implementing the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) programme has the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gases whilst also helping to maintain biodiversity. However, a proposed landscape governance approach to the REDD+ programme, encompassing all land-use activities, could alter these desirable outcomes. Under the proposed approach, governments and private entities could encourage types of land use that have the potential to threaten biodiversity and disrupt ecosystems. Yet a landscape governance approach could also stimulate governments to develop land-use management policies to facilitate adaptation to climate change. I organized focus group discussions with members of conservation groups, REDD+ scholars, and members of the REDD+ agroforestry research community at the Association of American Geographers 2016 Annual Meeting, to identify potential conservation challenges and opportunities associated with carbon-farming in grasslands and plantations under the proposed landscape governance approach to REDD+. I evaluate and synthesize this information, making recommendations for strategies to maximize the conservation opportunities and minimize the challenges. Understanding the challenges and opportunities will enable policy makers and other stakeholders to improve the presentation of their arguments in their efforts to shape the course of the REDD+ programme in the post-Paris Agreement era.

Commercial use of wildlife is booming. However, knowledge of trade, price structure and benefit distribution mechanisms remain limited for many endemic, threatened and economically valuable species, impeding efforts to develop conservation intervention schemes in line with sustainable objectives. We illustrate the nature of commercialization of the caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis, collected in a high-altitude Tibetan region. Using the value-chain approach, we document how caterpillar fungus is collected in a remote mountainous region and traded across a wide range of middlemen until it finally reaches high-end markets in urban centres. Mapping the caterpillar fungus value chain helps identify the actors involved and the social institutions (i.e. the rules, norms and arrangements that shape people's behaviours) facilitating access to markets and influencing profit distribution and price structure. We present the complex dynamics of this commercialization process, providing a holistic value-chain analysis that encompasses actors, profits and institutions.

There is widespread concern in Britain at the Ministry of Agriculture's decision to eliminate all badgers in sets where TB has been proved. Such sets are presently only known in a few small areas in the West Country – see Oryx, October 1975, page 114. The problem concerns bovine TB, which in Britain in the 1930s was estimated to cause at least 2500 human deaths a year (in addition to those caused by human TB), but which has now been almost eliminated with the pasteurisation of milk and the near elimination of the disease in cows by a ruthless slaughter policy. In this article the author explains why this drastic step is considered necessary and why many conservationists have regretfully agreed to support it.

Large body size is dangerous. The Pleistocene megafauna disappeared, it is now believed, at the hands of man. Large body size may help elephants and giant tortoises to avoid predators and to cover large areas in search of food. But this size also means that, because they must feed continuously, they need a large area of land to sustain them, and that the long gestation time and dependence of the young on their parents reduce population turnover. Only a very low harvest can be taken of such animals. The African elephant, if it is left to the mercies of poachers with automatic weapons, must become extinct.

For very many years the areas west of the railway line comprising Kibwezi, Makindu, Kiboko and Simba have been the mecca for numbers of the native poaching fraternity. A change exists. Now that game preservation has been strictly enforced, these skilled Wakamba hunters and experts in the use of bow and poisoned arrow have taken badly to existing conditions. Game animals ranging from elephant to dikdik in the past went through bad times in a grim endeavour to survive. Their drinking places during periods of excessive drought had their quota of poachers' hides, either hollowed out in mother earth or built on adjacent trees. Twang of bowstring had brought about in the minds of wild creatures a note inherited, conveying fear and alarm. Nothing on four legs was spared—females and young—easy food.

Chance took us within the short space of three months to two rather different small countries, Rwanda in December 1973 and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in January and February 1974, each for about a fortnight. Each country naturally has its wildlife conservation problems, and the differences between these cover such a large part of the spectrum of such problems that it seemed worth while comparing them.