After addressing a conference on ‘Ethics and the Practising Scientist’ some four years back, I remember the conferees struggling to formulate a code of ethics for those engaged in the so-called ‘hard’ sciences. They could not arrive at a satisfactory formulation, and at one point the chairman, in utter exasperation, confessed that, he didn't care for details about principles or quibbles over which slant the statements took, for ‘frankly any code should do!’ During the decade before and after that 1993 meeting, attempts to enunciate moral principles for researchers and manifestos for responsibility in science have come and gone, and the notes of discord have not abated.

Mahogany as a catalytic species. Logging of American (bigleaf ) mahogany (Swietenia spp.) initiates a series of events that leads to degradation and later destruction of tropical forests in the New World. It also is a spear-point for penetration of indigenous areas by loggers, who inflict both social and environmental impacts on the tribes. Mahogany populations are declining and are not being replenished by natural regener-ation; the situation of the species continues to worsen in the field.

The Eastern Ghats (EGs) comprise a chain of ancient low hills in the state of Andhra Pradesh adjoining the east coast of India. These hill ranges are well known for a rich array of tropical forests with great conservation significance which support large human populations. A series of protected areas (PAs) have been established by the government along these ranges to conserve the regional biodiversity, but their effectiveness is often questionable. In order to assess the ecological status of the forests both within and outside the PAs and to assess the impacts of ongoing forestry practices a survey was conducted along the EGs. Plant species richness, and density of shrubs and trees, were estimated along disturbance gradients (core, buffer and fringe situations) using random plots of 10-m radius for trees, and 5-m radius (nested) plots for shrubs and saplings. Indirect evidence (spoor) of domestic and wild animals was recorded within the sample plots to compare habitat use by the animals.

Srivenkateshwara National Park in the Seshachalam Hills, Gundlabrahmeshwaram Sanctuary in Nallamalais and some parts of Srisailam-Nagarjunasagar Tiger Reserve, had the least degraded forests due to their PA status. However, collection of non-timber forest products, bamboo harvesting and livestock grazing continues in all areas irrespective of legal status. All bamboo areas have been heavily worked. It is recommended that bamboo working should be stopped in core areas of the PAs and reduced from nine to six months (October to March) in the buffer zones. Summer is a period of potential water shortage for wild animals and bamboo workers' camps near water courses may affect habitat use by these species.

The proposed Gudem Maripakhala Sanctuary, well known for its biogeographical value and diverse flora, is seriously threatened as a result of to extensive 'podu' (slash and burn) cultivation. It is suggested that an integrated approach to biodiversity conservation and better agricultural practices, should be adopted in this area. Some of the primary and old growth forests should be identified, mapped and given immediate protection, until a scientifically-based management plan is developed.

Tourism is regarded by many countries, particularly resource-poor countries, as a potential stimulus to the economy. Yet tourism, by the nature of the activities involved, is constrained by the natural resource base and infrastructure, and by the pollution and other environmental and social impacts of tourist numbers. Tourism development strategies of national governments have been diverse in the face of this complex relationship between the economic costs and benefits of tourism. This paper examines tourist development based on concepts of open access and renewable natural resources. The experiences of two economies highly dependent on tourism, the Maldives and Nepal, are compared and contrasted. Although these countries offer very different attractions to tourists, they are faced with similar problems in terms of adverse environmental impacts of tourism. The dominant impacts in both areas are those associated with solid waste disposal and water resources, compounded by the depletion of natural resources. Both countries are currently employing 'dispersal' techniques to overcome the adverse impacts of tourism, but such strategies do not address the fundamental problem of maintaining tourism revenues whilst minimizing environmental damage. Even if an ecological carrying capacity can be defined, the experiences of these two countries indicate that impacts on local communities may well exceed so-called cultural carrying capacity.

Ecological impacts of urbanization are receiving increasing scientific attention, yet few data sets permit long-term effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to be assessed. Töölönlahti Bay, in the centre of Helsinki, Finland, provided on opportunity to characterize recent human impacts especially by means of chemical and biostratigraphical analyses of a sediment core. Periods of coniferous forest, forest clearance, urbanization and the development of parks, can be distinguished in the pollen record of the core. Palynological diversity was highest before the forest clearance at the turn of the century. The character of the sediment and the water have changed substantially in response to rapid population growth, the construction of sewage systems and building within the catchment of the bay. This is reflected in marked increases in organic matter, phosphorus and heavy metal (Cd, Cu, Ni, Zn and Pb) concentrations between 1890 and 1960, accompanied by a rapid increase in diatom species indicative of eutrophication and a decline in diatom species diversity.

Since the cessation of waste-water disposal in the 1960s, concentrations of a number of pollutants have declined and water quality has gradually improved, but conditions are still affected by internal and atmospheric loadings. As a consequence of land uplift (2 mm per year) and the rapid sedimentation rate (6 mm per year), the volume of the bay is decreasing. Within 200 years, the shallow bay, which is skirted by extensive parks and famous cultural buildings such as the Finlandia and the Opera Houses, will fill with sediment unless it is dredged.

Livestock depredation by the snow leopard, Uncia uncia, and the wolf, Canis lupus, has resulted in a human-wildlife conflict that hinders the conservation of these globally-threatened species throughout their range. This paper analyses the alleged economic loss due to livestock depredation by these carnivores, and the retaliatory responses of an agro-pastoral community around Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary in the Indian trans-Himalaya. The three villages studied (80 households) attributed a total of 189 livestock deaths (18% of the livestock holding) over a period of 18 months to wild predators, and this would amount to a loss per household equivalent to half the average annual per capita income. The financial compensation received by the villagers from the Government amounted to 3% of the perceived annual loss. Recent intensification of the conflict seems related to a 37.7% increase in livestock holding in the last decade. Villagers have been killing the wolf, though apparently not the snow leopard. A self-financed compensation scheme, and modification of existing livestock pens are suggested as area-specific short-term measures to reduce the conflict. The need to address the problem of increasing livestock holding in the long run is emphasized.

Increasing human pressure has presumably led to a decrease in the cover and herbage yield of Kuwaiti desert vegetation, but, to date, there has been little detailed study on such human impacts. A study of Rhanterium epapposum (local name arfaj) and Haloxylon salicornicum (local name remeth) steppe was therefore effected to determine the seasonal variation in above-ground phytomass and percentage cover, and to investigate differences between protected and adjacent grazed areas.

An average seasonal precipitation of 90 mm supported a mean of 223 kg ha-1 in arfaj steppe in 1979–1989, whereas an average mean seasonal precipitation of 73 mm during 1983–1989 maintained a mean phytomass of 102 kg ha-1 in the remeth steppe. Annual forbs and perennial shrubs were the greatest producers of dry matter per kg of phytomass in the arfaj and remeth steppes, respectively. The seasonal production of dry matter was related directly to the seasonal precipitation in the arfaj steppe, whereas the remeth steppe did not show an obvious relationship to the precipitation. The plant cover was 83% and 70% less, and herbage production was 76% and 91% less in grazed areas than in protected areas in the arfaj and remeth steppes, respectively.

Given limited budgets to enforce access restrictions, protected area (PA) managers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in developing countries employ a range of policy instruments to conserve the area's natural resources. Natural characteristics of the PA combine with the managers' enforcement activities and other policy instruments to create a set of incentives to which local people respond in making decisions about extracting resources from the PA. The different management approaches employed in the Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve (XNR; China) and the Khao Yai National Park (KYNP; Thailand) and the reaction to the incentives which they create are compared. KYNP managers use policing and punishment mechanisms, in conjunction with limited NGO-supported income-generation projects, to deter resource use. In contrast, XNR managers rely on extensive cooperation with local people and trade-offs between current resource degradation and increased rural incomes.

As predicted by the economic enforcement literature, rural people respond to the threat of punishment, and its reduction of the expected benefit of an illegal activity, by reducing that activity, but may undertake socially-costly avoidance activities to avoid punishment. This literature also correctly predicts that XNR managers will concentrate less on pure enforcement than KYNP managers because, as a result of a difference in government mandates, the XNR managers consider the value of the extracted products and the non-PA productivity in their decisions while the KYNP managers do not. In both PAs, rural people's actions affect the quality of resource conservation. In KYNP, natural characteristics and the policing activities deter resource extraction and encroachment in the central core of the Park. Even NGO projects, however, have not controlled extraction, and even agricultural encroachment, in the outer third of the Park, which has caused over-extraction of some resources and has left a ring of highly-degraded land. In contrast, XNR's cooperative management approach has generated more control over the amount and the spatial configuration of resource degradation. XNR's control, however, comes at the cost of reduced area and level of current conservation.