The Gola Forest (North), located on the eastern border of Sierra Leone with Liberia, at 7°30′–7°45′N latitude and 11°0′ – 11°15′E longitude, is the farthest extension northwards and westwards of the Congo-West African closed forest formation type. Its inaccessibility had prevented its exploitation during historical times, and this has resulted in its preservation as primary forest. Evidence from the structure, species composition, and microclimate, of unexploited forest enclaves such as the study site, show that the Gola Forest is different from the common mature secondary forests situated elsewhere in the country.

Basically through population pressures leading to habitat encroachment and commercial slaughter, India is becoming poorer, day be day, in her still-rich heritage of wildlife. Virgin forests on the plains and in the hilly regions are dwindling. Unfortunately, education and research centres have not cared to educate the youth of the country about the importance of nature conservation.

The Author's field endeavours, extending over more than a decade, have helped to reveal that 18 of India's 27 threatened mammalian species—lion-tailed Macaque, Macaque, Nilgiri Langur, Golden Langur, Snub-nosed Langur, Wolf, Asiatic Wild Dog, Malabar Large-spotted Civet, Clouded Leopard, Indian Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Asian Elephant, Sumatran Rhinoceros, Kashmir Stag, Gaur, Wild Yak, Nilgiri Tahr, and Markhor—have their homes in hilly or montane habitats. Pradoxically, India has the dubious distinction of ranking second in the world, and first among the 15 countries of the Oriental region, in having 27 mammalian species whose world populations are to some extent threatened according to the Red Data Book (IUCN, 1972).

Since Man's earliest dominion of the Earth, he has depended on the land and its plants for his survival, and he has often altered the forest and field to enhance his success. He has removed some species, planted others, and encouraged growth of still others, both intentionally and inadvertently, to the extent that few areas of the Earth still remain covered by large expanses of totally undisturbed plant communities.

Among the inadvertent changes that have been wrought by Man in natural systems are those resulting from the input of the pollutants of technology: sulphur dioxide, herbicides, photochemical pollutants, pesticides, radiation, and much more. The presence of each provides a selective force favouring some genotypes, discouraging others, and eliminating species that lack sufficient genetic diversity to survive. Thus the occurrence and distribution of plants is influenced, and community composition is changed—usually for the worse. Where large numbers of species are killed and the land is laid bare to erosion, the impact is highly undesirable. In other instances, tolerant genotypes existed of a sufficiency of species to allow them to reproduce and fill vacated niches. In the occasional instance where only a few plant species are damaged, the character of the change will depend on the nature of the tolerant individuals and species. A shift from forest to more tolerant grasses and forbs is common.

Since 1977 the Sepik River backwaters between Pagwi and Angoram in Papua New Guinea have become increasingly covered by the exotic water-fern Salvinia molesta. By May 1979, Salvinia covered about 80 km2. Water chemical analyses for dissolved substances give no evidence that nutrients in the Sepik River and ‘lagoons’ might become limiting enough to affect the Salvinia population. The physical impact of the plant is reflected especially in the decline of the fisheries for Saltfish Tilapia (Sarotherodon mossambicus), crocodile hunting, collection of sago-palm, and in the slowing down or complete elimination of water transport. As a consequence, people in a number of villages are unable to reach markets and children cannot go to schools.

A programme of management has been formulated which will involve the United Nations, central and provincial governments, and local inhabitants. However, it should be understood that there is little chance of complete elimination of the weed from Sepik River backwaters.

While developed countries of the world are expressing growing concern about the plight of tropical rain-forests, it is necessary to understand the issues involved. They are not merely populaton growth, the world food problems, and the ever-growing demand for natural resources, but also environmental ethics and the attitudes of resource managers and other decision-makers. These last issues might be even more important in the long run than purely demographic and socio-economic problems.

The Author of this essay attempts to build up a case for the need of a global environmental ethic which would incorporate existing values of respect for living creatures, sacred groves, and sacred animals—such as still survives among the cultures of the less-developed parts of the tropical world. It might well be that the life-styles of strongly vegetarian societies, and the intensive tropical lowland agriculture as practiced in and around irrigated rice-fields in Southeast Asia, could be used as a model for wiser use of renewable natural resources in the lessdeveloped tropical areas.

Part 2 of this paper reviews the situation in the Central and Eastern regions of the Pacific Realm as well as in the Pacific mainland coasts of Australia, North America, and South America. Table I lists the ‘Pacific Faunal Balance’ as far as vertebrates are concerned, and gives the number and distribution of existing national parks or nature reserves in each subregion. It shows that the Hawaiian Islands have been subjected to a high number of extinctions. In addition an even larger number of Hawaiian vertebrates are at present on the verge of extinction. Hawaii tops the lists of both extinct (24) and endangered (37) vertebrates. It is also evident from Table I that Pacific islands are much more vulnerable to vertebrate extinctions than are the Pacific coasts of Australia, North America, and South America. Not less than six subregions of Pacific islands show a higher number of extinctions than the east coast of Australia, and 16 subregions are affected by extinctions, while the western coasts of North and South America are not.

Long-term limits to growth in energy-use will be imposed not by inability to expand supply but by the rising environmental and social costs of doing so. These costs will therefore be central issues in choosing long-term energy options. Energy from nuclear fusion, like solar energy, is not one technology but many. Some of the fusion possibilities seem likely to have very attractive environmental characteristics; others may be little better in these regards than nuclear fission.

Issues in fusion-reactor design that are crucial from the environmental standpoint include: size of tritium inventory and pathways for its release; nature and configuration of materials that are subject to neutron activation; forms and quantities of the stored energy that are internal to the reactor, and the nature of potential links between fusion technology and nuclear weaponry.

This is a comparative study of national park and related reserve policies and institutional arrangements in three hinterland areas undergoing rising pressure from mineral projects. The areas are the Canadian Northern Territories and Alaska (where interest lies in oil and gas exploitation) and the Australian Northern Territory (where the focus is on uranium extraction). Five elements of policy and institutional arrangements—management field, comprehensive planning and management, system planning, public inquiries, and uses—have been closely studied, with the following conclusions:

1. With respect to the management field, a major problem has been division of responsibility among federal and state or territorial agencies.

2. Overall comprehensive planning has not been seriously attempted in Canada and Australia, and has not yet met with success in Alaska.

3. A system planning approach provides rationale in Alaska and Canada, but is lacking in Australia.

4. Local comprehensive planning has been undertaken in the Kakadu National Park area of Australia, and a start has been made in this direction in Canada's northern Yukon.

5. Two uses, mining and native activities, pose special problems for national parks and related reserve policy, which is ambiguous on these issues in all cases.

6. All three systems represented by these parks in different countries are changing rapidly, and more suitable adaptive arrangements may be made for them in the coming years.

Conservation and utilization of wildlife resources are not new among our local communities in Nigeria, although the present approach to the management of these resources is very recent. Modern technology, urbanization, and human population expansion, have caused the destruction of many indigenous animal and plant species in Nigeria.

This paper highlights the recent developments in the overall conservation programme in Nigeria. It describes the important role which wildlife is playing in helping to feed the nation, in creating employment opportunities, in education, in research, in recreation, and in local medicine. Inadequacy of Nigerian wildlife legislation and of trained manpower to protect and manage the wildlife resources are among the crucial wildlife management problems identified in this paper. It is also stressed that the basic information for effective management is often lacking where Nigerian wildlife reserves are concerned.