Locke and Dearden (2005) assert that the emerging new paradigm for protected areas (PAs) risks taking the PA agenda to a ‘tragic failure,’ and the planet towards biological impoverishment. They believe the ‘new paradigm’ contributes to a persistent tendency towards giving social issues higher priority over biological considerations and is based on the promotion of PA categories V and VI of the IUCN (World Conservation Union).

Societal dependence on oil leads to increasingly negative social consequences throughout the world, including climate change, air pollution, political and economic instability, and habitat degradation. Reliance on the automobile for transportation also contributes to a sedentary lifestyle, an obesity epidemic and poor health. These problems are particularly pronounced in the USA, which currently consumes c. 27% of global oil production and produces c. 25% of global carbon emissions, and where c. 65% of adults are overweight or obese. Other countries throughout the world that replicate or hope to replicate the automobile-based lifestyle of the USA face similar problems now or in the near future. This paper develops and applies calculations relating the distances that could be travelled through recommended daily walking or cycling with weight loss, oil consumption and carbon emissions. These straightforward calculations demonstrate that widespread substitution of driving with distances travelled during recommended daily exercise could reduce the USA's oil consumption by up to 38%. This saving far exceeds the amount of oil recoverable from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, suggesting that exercise can reduce foreign oil dependence and provide an alternative to oil extraction from environmentally sensitive habitat. At the same time, an average individual who substitutes this amount of exercise for transportation would burn respectively c. 12.2 and 26.0 kg of fat per year for walking and cycling. This is sufficient to eliminate obese and overweight conditions in a few years without dangerous or draconian diet plans. Furthermore, a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of c. 35% is possible if the revenue saved through decreased health care spending on obesity is redirected toward carbon abatement. As a result, exercise-based transportation may constitute a favourable alternative to the energy and diet plans that are currently being implemented in the USA and may offer better development choices for developing countries.

Recent increase in the rate of deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has inflamed discussion about the causes of forest loss, with a special focus on agriculture. This paper studies the expansion of agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon from 1976 to 2001 based on the eight most important products (cattle, bananas, beans, cassava, coffee, maize, rice and soybeans). A biological delimitation of the Amazon based on a map of Brazil's biomes was adopted in order to avoid inclusion of non-forested areas in the analysis. Intense spatial changes in Brazilian agriculture have occurred, with the emergence of new production centres for soybeans and cattle. Several of these regions are located nearby or inside the Amazon's limits. Livestock and soybean cropping in Brazil are consistently moving north. The contribution of the Amazon to Brazilian agriculture rose significantly during the last decades, reaching 28.9% of cassava, 21.3% of banana, 14.2% of rice and 20.0% of cattle production in Brazil in 2001 (three-year average). Cropped area and production in the Amazon have grown at higher annual rates than in the rest of the country for almost all items analysed, supporting the view that the region is a new frontier of Brazilian agriculture. Most recent trends point to a vigorous demand for new land, which will consequently imply a predicted increase in forest clearing.

Understanding the incentives influencing the attitudes and behaviour of resource users is a crucial input to the design of institutions for resource management. Typically fishers have been expected to exploit resources in an independent profit-maximizing manner, which is in line with common property theory, although these expectations are not always met because fishers' behaviours and attitudes are generally more heterogeneous than previously considered. Attitudinal differences between participants in the inshore commercial fishery of Wales, UK, were investigated. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 161 fishers from the five main sectors, namely mobile gear fishers, crustacean potters, whelk potters, line/net fishers and transient fishers. Unprompted expressions of attitudes and responses to open-ended questions underwent thematic-coding and were analysed with fishers' responses to structured questions. Investigation into whether the incentive to participate in resource stewardship varied between sectors as predicted by common property theory found attitudinal similarities across the sectors, but also certain important differences. Results suggested an attitudinal continuum, with mobile gear fishers and crustacean potters at the two extremes, and intermediate positions occupied by transient fishers, whelk potters and line/net fishers. Mobile gear fishers believed most strongly that their fishery was controlled too tightly and was impacted by other fishers and other anthropogenic influences. Crustacean potters believed most strongly that conservation of stocks was necessary and that minimum landing sizes were not overcautious. The attitudes that characterized each sector were related to the characteristics of the sector and its resource base, and generally concurred with theoretical predictions. In particular, target species' mobility and past sector experiences predicted the inclination of fishers in each sector towards resource stewardship. The observed attitudinal differences implied varying personal discount rates that may affect how respondents respond to and comply with management tools. Furthermore, attitudinal differences among sectors mean that an effective management tool in one sector may be inappropriate or counterproductive in another.

Waterfowl ingest lead shot because they confuse it with grit, but there has been limited study of differences among species and locations. The spatial and interspecific variation in the quantity and size composition of ingested grit and in the ingestion of lead shot by eight waterfowl species in the three main wintering areas in the western Mediterranean (Doñana, Ebro Delta and Camargue) was investigated. Variation in the mass of grit in the gizzard was related to bird species, whereas size composition of ingested grit was more closely related to locality and less to species. Birds with a large proportion of vegetation in their diets had more grit in the gizzard. Grit size composition was related to prevalence of lead shot ingestion. Thus, the quantity of grit in the gizzard is an attribute of species, and grit size composition (which largely determines the risk of ingestion of lead shot) is more affected by local conditions. This conclusion is supported by a meta-analysis of previous studies of the incidence of lead shot ingestion in 51 locations and 27 waterfowl species in North America and Europe. The prevalence of lead shot ingestion in a given waterbird species was highly variable between localities, and was not consistently different between dabbling, grazing and diving species.

Recently, conservationists have debated whether consumers of animal and plant potency products used to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) might be switching to Viagra, consequently consuming fewer of these animals and plants. To address this question, a survey examined the medical decisions of male consumers of TCM in Hong Kong who were over the age of 50. As predicted, these consumers reported selectively switching to Western medicines to treat ED, but not to treat other health ailments. These findings provide support for the possibility that Viagra may have conservation benefits for certain species.

Community-based approaches to decision-making in the management of protected areas are increasingly being implemented in many areas. However information on the outcome of these approaches for conservation is often lacking. In this study, the effectiveness of community-based approaches for conservation of biodiversity was examined in Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) (Nepal) through a combination of ecological assessments and social surveys undertaken both within and outwith ACA. Forest basal area and tree species diversity were found to be significantly higher inside ACA than in neighbouring areas outside. The mean density of cut tree stumps was significantly lower inside ACA, associated with a decline in use of fuelwood as an energy source over the past decade. Social surveys also indicated that wild animal populations have increased inside ACA since the inception of community-based conservation. Observations of animal track counts, pellet counts and direct observations of selected species such as barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak) and Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) indicated higher abundances within ACA. The community-based management has been successful in delivering conservation benefits in ACA, attributable to changing patterns of resource use and behaviour among local communities, increased control of local communities over their local resources, increased conservation awareness among local people resulting from environmental education, and the development and strengthening of local institutions such as Conservation Area Management Committees (CAMC). However, these positive achievements are threatened by the current political instability in Nepal.

Despite the fact that tropical dry forests are being exploited on a large scale for various forest products, there has been limited evaluation of the accompanying ecological impacts. In particular, there is no information on the effects of widespread biomass extraction such as grazing and firewood collection. A study was carried out in Sariska Tiger Reserve in northern India, to investigate the effects of biomass extraction on forest vegetation composition, diversity and structure. Biomass extraction caused significant changes in forest vegetation structure and species composition in the tree layer but the extent of these changes varied across the three major vegetation types found in the Reserve. Anogeissus-dominated slope forest showed significantly lower mean canopy cover, tree density, tree basal area and height of trees in disturbed sites in comparison to undisturbed sites. Riparian forest showed lower mean canopy cover, tree basal areas and number of recorded tree species in disturbed sites. Scrub forest had lower mean canopy cover, tree basal area and tree height. There were fewer tall trees but greater number of short trees in disturbed sites of all three vegetation types. Girths of trees similarly shifted towards lower values in riparian and scrub forest. In Anogeissus-dominated forest, disturbed and undisturbed sites did not differ in proportions of trees in various girth-classes. Tree species richness was substantially lower in disturbed sites of Anogeissus-dominated and riparian forest in comparison to undisturbed sites, but was not affected by disturbance in scrub forest. Understorey species richness was higher in disturbed sites of all three vegetation types but understorey changed structurally only in Anogeissus-dominated forest. Overall tree and understorey species composition was significantly different between disturbed and undisturbed sites of Anogeissus-dominated forest, but was unchanged in scrub and riparian forest. Observed changes in vegetation structure, diversity and composition of the different vegetation types due to biomass extraction have implications for biodiversity conservation in tropical dry forest ecosystems, and need to be addressed in future forest management planning.

Although overhead electrical wires are known to have caused severe declines of bird populations, there are no studies in India that address this danger, even for endangered species. Rates of mortality, factors affecting mortality and population effects of electrical wires on the globally endangered sarus crane (Grus antigone) were assessed for breeding and non-breeding cranes in Etawah and Mainpuri districts, Uttar Pradesh, India. Non-breeding cranes were most susceptible to wires and, within territories, mortalities were higher for pre-dispersed young. Similar proportions of non-breeding and breeding cranes were killed, together accounting for nearly 1% of the total sarus crane population annually. Supply wires accounted for the majority of sarus crane deaths, and only non-breeding cranes were killed by both supply and high-tension power lines. Non-breeding crane deaths at roost sites were correlated with numbers of roosting birds and numbers of wires at each site. Over 40% of 251 known sarus crane territories had at least one overhead wire posing a risk to breeding adults and pre-dispersed young. A risk index for wires over territories of cranes was computed; mortality was not affected by increasing the number and therefore risk posed by wires. Most crane deaths in territories occurred as a result of wires at edges of territories. Wires around roosting sites, territoriality and age of sarus cranes appear to be the most important factors affecting their mortality due to wires. Mitigation measures will be most effective around roost sites and for wires that border territories of breeding pairs.

Theory suggests that values are important in determining an individual's behaviour and preferences related to environmental issues; however robust models that attempt to describe empirical relationships have proven elusive. This paper describes a model that clarified some relationships between values and preferences for the future management of natural areas. The key element in the model was the use of a new scale, the Natural Area Value Scale (NAVS) for measuring the relative strengths of individuals' intrinsic, non-use, use and recreation values for natural areas. Also of importance was a variable that grouped people according to their common values. The data were obtained from samples of the general public, environmentalists and farmers in Australia and were analysed in a structural equation model. The model indicated the relative importance of particular value components in determining nature conservation preferences, as well as individuals' willingness to make personal sacrifices to secure these preferences for protecting natural areas. The model fit differed for the three samples: it provided a good fit for the general public sample, for which it was designed, and weaker fit for environmentalists and farmers. The work contributes to understanding of the values that underlie conservation decisions and provides a basis for further research to develop the model's explanatory power.