Numerous solutions have been proposed to slow the accelerating loss of biodiversity. Thinking about biodiversity conservation has not, however, been incorporated into the everyday activities of most individuals and nations. Conservation scientists need to refocus on strategies that reshape ethical attitudes to nature and encourage pro-environmental thinking and lifestyles. Religions are central to basic beliefs and ethics that influence people's behaviour and should be considered more seriously in biodiversity discourse. Using data from the World Religion Database we conducted an analysis of the spatial overlap between major global religions and seven templates for prioritizing biodiversity action. Our analysis indicated that the majority of these focal areas are situated in countries dominated by Christianity, and particularly the Roman Catholic denomination. Moreover, the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches appear to have the greatest per capita opportunity to influence discourse on biodiversity, notwithstanding the role of other religious communities in some key biodiversity areas.

Faith-based teachings on the environment have been identified as a potentially effective form of conservation outreach but one that remains largely untested. Indonesia contains 10% of the world's tropical rainforests and is the most populous Muslim country. A faith-based approach to conservation could therefore yield significant conservation benefits here. Within Islam several key principles in the Qur'an underpin and outline the role of humans in nature conservation. Here, we report on a Darwin Initiative project component that sought to assess the applicability of Islamic teachings to conservation action in West Sumatra. We developed water-conservation-themed sermons that were delivered by project-trained religious leaders in 10 mosques and nine Islamic boarding schools during the holy month of Ramadan. We conducted entry–exit questionnaire surveys to assess levels of concern, awareness and intent to act amongst male (n = 389) and female (n = 479) worshippers. The results revealed that greater attention should be paid to raising awareness of the linkages between Islam and conservation rather than on conservation principles alone, which were already adequately understood. This study provides the first insights into the important role that women could play within a faith-based project. Female respondents demonstrated greater knowledge and understanding of Islamic teachings about the environment and the services provided by watershed forests. They were also more likely to contribute to conservation activities, suggesting that future projects should seek to involve this often marginalized stakeholder group fully, as well as provide practical ways for men and women to transform words into action.

Provisioning ecosystem services include wild products that form an integral part of rural economies. Using quantitative and qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 50 households in a Tibetan community in Western Sichuan, China, we explored the relationships of households with three diverse provisioning services on the Eastern Tibetan plateau: firewood, medicinal caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis and matsutake mushrooms Tricholoma matsutake. We examined (1) how they contribute to wealth and livelihoods, (2) what determines household access, and (3) how local use has changed over time. All households were reliant on firewood, and levels extracted were explained only by household size. A more complex set of factors explained access to caterpillar fungus: younger, larger, pastoralist households with lower dependency ratios tended to collect more, and education and household size explained variation in price gained for the product. Caterpillar fungus extraction has dramatically increased over the last 20 years, providing up to 72% of household income, but poorer households have received significantly less of their income from the fungus. Matsutake contributed much less to livelihoods because of its relatively low price. The results show a contrast between subsistence and market-driven products: access to the latter is affected by competition and power relationships. Overall access to provisioning services was related to facets of wealth, especially human capital. The study contributes a household level analysis of the diverse provisioning value of an under-researched part of the world, highlighting the heterogeneity and dynamism of the relationships of households with ecosystem services.

Priority Primate Areas are identified in Tanzania, mainland Africa's most important country for conservation of primates, on the basis of occupancy by globally rare, Red-Listed and range-restricted primate species and subspecies. We provide a comprehensive list and regional assessment of Tanzania's primate taxa, using IUCN Red List criteria, as well as the first national inventory of primates for 62 sites. The Priority Primate Areas, encompassing 102,513 km2, include nine national parks, one conservation area, seven game reserves, six nature reserves, 34 forest reserves and five areas with no official protection status. Primate species were evaluated and ranked on the basis of irreplaceability and vulnerability, using a combination of established and original criteria, resulting in a primate Taxon Conservation Score. Sites were ranked on the basis of summed primate scores. The majority (71%) of Priority Primate Areas are also Important Bird Areas (IBAs), or part of an IBA. Critical subsets of sites were derived through complementarity analyses. Adequate protection of just nine sites, including six national parks (Kilimanjaro, Kitulo, Mahale, Saadani, Udzungwa and Jozani-Chwaka Bay), one nature reserve (Kilombero) and two forest reserves (Minziro and Mgambo), totalling 8,679 km2, would protect all 27 of Tanzania's primate species. The addition of three forest reserves (Rondo, Kilulu Hill and Ngezi) and two game reserves (Grumeti and Biharamulo), results in a list of 14 Priority Primate Areas covering 10,561 km2 (1.1% of Tanzania's total land area), whose conservation would ensure the protection of all 43 of Tanzania's species and subspecies of primates.

We conducted an interview survey around and within Mengla and Shangyong Nature Reserves, Mengla County, Yunnan, China, in December 2008 to ascertain whether gibbons were present in the area, and in December 2011 we surveyed two sites in the Reserves for the northern white-cheeked gibbon Nomascus leucogenys. We found no signs of the existence of gibbons during the survey. Illegal hunting was common at both sites. Only 36 individuals in nine groups were recorded in Mengla and Shangyong Nature Reserves in the 1980s, and this small and fragmented population was probably unable to survive the pressure of hunting. No white-cheeked gibbon was recorded in Huanglianshan Nature Reserve in a survey carried out by other researchers in 2003. Gibbons have a very low chance of survival in unprotected forest, and we conclude that the white-cheeked gibbon is extinct, or at least ecologically extinct, in China.

The increasing number of invasive species and their effects on wildlife conservation, together with a lack of public resources, make it necessary to prioritize management actions. In practice, management decisions are often reached on the basis of subjective reasoning rather than scientific evidence. To develop a more evidence-based and efficient management of biological invasions, decision tools (e.g. multi-criteria frameworks) that help managers prioritize actions most efficiently are key. In this paper we review to what degree such decision tools are currently available. We used a literature search to identify relevant studies. Our analysis indicates that available studies are largely biased towards risk analysis and that only a few authors have proposed cost-benefit or multi-criteria frameworks for decision making. Until now, these frameworks have only been applied at limited regional scales but they could be applied more widely. Our review also shows critical biases in the geographical focus, habitats, and taxonomic groups of available studies. Most studies have focused on Europe, North America or Australia; other continents have largely been ignored. The majority of studies have focused on terrestrial plants; other habitats and taxonomic groups have been poorly covered. Most studies have focused on a single invasive species but practical management tools should consider a wide variety of invaders. We conclude with suggestions for developing improved decision tools.

Human–wildlife conflicts occur within the context of a complex social–ecological system influenced by a wide variety of social, economic and political forces. Management responses to human–wildlife conflict are based on certain assumptions and perceptions that form the mental models of this system. Understanding these mental models provides opportunity for various stakeholders to engage management staff based on shared components and direct attention to areas of disagreement, and involve organizations that are normally considered to be outside the domain of human–wildlife conflict. Mind mapping was used in this study to identify mental models that people hold about human–wildlife conflict in Namibia, a country that has seen rapid increases in conflict, and to describe the principal factors and variables leading to such conflict. The results indicate that mind mapping is a useful tool for uncovering mental models of conflict and can reveal significant variables in reduction of conflict such as land-use planning and livelihood enhancement.

Local land-use planning procedures are increasingly recognized as potentially crucial to ensure off-reserve biodiversity protection. Mainstreaming systematic conservation planning maps in these decision-making procedures has been proposed as a mechanism to achieve this. However, research is lacking on how to convince officials and politicians to change their behaviour and include the maps in their decision-making. Social marketing is a tool commonly used to effect behaviour change in many sectors but its application in conservation is limited. In the formative research phase of a social marketing study we interviewed locally elected politicians in four coastal municipalities in South Africa. We found that conservation and environmental issues play virtually no role in their work; however, they do attribute value to the natural environment. Land-use planning procedures are considered important but dysfunctional and the role of conservation is perceived negatively in their municipalities. Their information-seeking behaviour is clearly localized. We present a marketing analysis of these results and argue for improving the attractiveness of the product: the maps should be more option- than veto-based and should identify locally relevant ecosystem services. Locally significant information should be provided at a time and location convenient for politicians. We conclude that engagement with councillors should be proactive, refer to land-use planning and services from ‘nature’ rather than ‘biodiversity’ and use terminology and information that is locally oriented and meaningful from the politician's perspective. The analysis highlights the usefulness of the marketing approach for conservation.

Relict species provide a unique opportunity to understand past and recent biogeographical and evolutionary processes. Zelkova abelicea (Ulmaceae), which is endemic to the island of Crete (Greece), is one of the most prominent Tertiary relict trees of the Mediterranean region. We collected distribution, threat and population structure data by reviewing literature and herbaria and through field surveys at 14 study plots throughout the range of the species. The present distribution of Z. abelicea is extremely fragmented. Although the total estimated number of individuals is relatively high, the populations are dominated by dwarf, severely browsed, non-flowering individuals. The population structure is asymmetric. At most, 5% of a plot's trees are large and fruit-bearing. The asymmetric structure is particularly pronounced in isolated and small populations. Based on its limited geographical range, the fragmented spatial pattern, and data on distribution and population structure, our study confirms that Z. abelicea is a threatened species (IUCN category Endangered). Our research aim is to promote the development of new approaches for the improvement of conservation strategies for Tertiary relict trees characterized by major local disjunctions.

The landscape of U Minh in southern Vietnam contains the country's last remaining fragments of peat swamp forest and is home to several globally threatened species. Despite the presence of two national parks, evidence indicates that illegal natural resource use by local communities has had a significant effect on species populations. We investigated the nature and extent of natural resource use in U Minh. Interviews revealed that location is a significant determining factor in whether or not individuals choose to harvest resources, suggesting that the national parks are having some positive results in curtailing illegal harvesting. Most hunting and fishing is carried out for trade purposes and most interviewees indicated a preference for consuming livestock, suggesting that resource users do not rely on wildlife for subsistence but rather for supplementing their income. People who prefer consuming wild meat were found to be more likely to harvest natural resources than people who prefer consuming livestock, demonstrating a potential link between these behavioural issues. The preference for wild meat decreases with increasing price, in contrast with urban consumers who value more expensive wild meat varieties, which suggests that different factors are driving wild meat consumption among the rural Vietnamese. The majority of interviewees perceived a decrease in species populations, attributing the decline primarily to harvesting pressures and thus indicating that strict regulation of illegal harvesting activities is necessary to protect U Minh's remaining biodiversity.

The Guadeloupe archipelago hosts nesting of the threatened hawksbill Eretmochelys imbricata, green Chelonia mydas and leatherback Dermochelys coriacea marine turtles. There is a need to monitor the nesting of these species but, with > 150 beaches in the archipelago, exhaustive monitoring is infeasible. Using a new monitoring design and a new statistical tool we have been able to monitor one-third of the beaches. Seasonality and level of nesting were described for the three species for 2 years on > 50 beaches. For each species beaches were categorized as A- or B-beaches, with high and low nest density, respectively. A-beaches were monitored on 6–7 days per month before and after the peak nesting period and on 7–15 days during the peak, and the B-beaches on 14–22 days during the peak. The monitoring design and statistical tool are described in detail as they could be applied to any migratory species. Hawksbill turtles at Trois Ilets beach have been monitored for 9 years and a positive trend in nesting has been detected.

The Near Threatened Eurasian black vulture Aegypius monachus is considered highly threatened in Europe, and the species was reintroduced in France between 1992 and 2004. A total of 53 individuals were released, using two methods: immatures were released from large aviaries at the reintroduction site after a stay of several months (the aviary method), whereas juveniles were placed on artificial nests until fledging (the hacking method). The survival rates of released birds were compared to the survival of wild-born offspring through a multi-event capture–recapture analysis accounting for tag loss. Survival rates were higher in adults than in juveniles and immatures (0.98 ± SE 0.02 vs 0.85 ± SE 0.03) and were constant over time. Overall there were no differences in post-release survival between the two release methods: immatures released by the aviary method had a similar survival to juveniles released by the hacking method or born in the wild. Immatures can breed before juveniles, so releasing immatures by the aviary method could accelerate reintroduction settlement and increase population viability. Accurate estimates of post-release survival are essential to improve the reliability of viability analysis of reintroduced populations and the management of such populations.

Defining habitat selection features and predicting the distribution of species are important for conservation management, and habitat suitability models can provide the statistical framework linking environmental variables to occurrence locations. However, the reliability of such models is restricted for datasets that have limited presence data, which is problematic when population size is low and population dynamics are transient, such as in reintroductions. We characterized and projected nest-site suitability for a black vulture Aegypius monachus population reintroduced in the Grands Causses, France. We performed temporal validations with subsample datasets based on chronological establishment, to assess whether first nests are able to predict subsequent nests. We compared these results to a spatial validation to ensure robustness. Predictions were reliable even with only 10 nest locations. The black vultures reintroduced in the Grands Causses selected pine trees and steep slopes, similar to natural populations elsewhere in Europe. Although our projections were made from only a small number of founders, they are conservative and indicate that a large area in this region is available for nesting and thus availability of breeding habitat is not currently a limiting factor for the species. Our findings will aid the modelling of habitat suitability for further reintroductions. We propose conservation management strategies for this region that integrate socio-economic constraints with the prediction of sites suitable for nesting. Where habitat is the most suitable for black vultures, logging and human activities need to be reduced during the critical breeding stages.

During 2008–2010 we investigated the ecology of the Endangered dhole or wild dog Cuon alpinus in Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve in the Eastern Himalaya in Sikkim, India. We conducted camera trapping (n = 71 sites, 6,278 camera-days) and sign surveying along trails (n = 24; 629.43 km of effort) to assess the relative abundance, distribution and activity pattern of the dhole. Morphological characteristics evident in the 61 camera-trap photographs indicate that the dhole population in the Reserve may be the rare and genetically distinct subspecies C. alpinus primaevus. We detected dholes over a wide elevation range (2,501–4,100 m) that encompassed the upper temperate, subalpine, and alpine scrub zones. Dholes were diurnal, with peak activity at 08.00–10.00. Analysis of 41 scats indicated a diet comprising mainly mountain ungulates, rodents and pikas Ochotona sp. Although the frequency of occurrence of rodents was highest (32%) in the scats, 98.7% of the total biomass consumed was of mountain ungulates. Historical reports (1888–1894) indicated that the dhole was formerly abundant in Sikkim but was hunted to meet the high demand for its alleged medicinal properties. With no information on the status of the dhole in Sikkim for over a century, our study suggests that the species is now rare in the Reserve. To aid the conservation of the dhole and its main ungulate prey species extensive research and monitoring are required in the Reserve and elsewhere in the Eastern Himalaya.