We assessed the impacts of crop raiding by wild mammals on the livelihoods of smallholding farmers in south-western Ethiopia. Data were generated through participatory field mapping, interviews and focus groups. The results indicated that wild mammals, mainly olive baboons Papio anubis and bush pigs Potamochoerus larvatus, were raiding most crops cultivated in villages close to forests. In addition to the loss of crops, farmers incurred indirect costs in having to guard and cultivate plots far from their residences, sometimes at the expense of their children's schooling. Raiding also undermined farmers’ willingness to invest in modern agricultural technologies. Various coping strategies, including guarding crops and adapting existing local institutions, were insufficient to reduce raiding and its indirect impacts on household economies to tolerable levels, and were undermined by existing policies and government institutions. It is essential to recognize wild mammal pests as a critical ecosystem disservice to farmers, and to identify ways to mitigate their direct and indirect costs, to facilitate local agricultural development and livelihood security, and integrate wildlife conservation and local development more fully in agriculture–forest mosaic landscapes.

The decline of the jaguar in the 1970s reflected the large trade in their skins. Since 1973, when the species was listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade In Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the threat from the commercial skin trade has abated. However, habitat destruction and opportunistic killing continue. If the jaguar is to persist into the future, local people must be convinced that conserving jaguars has long-term benefits for them.

Protected areas are regarded as the most important tool in the conservation toolbox. They cover > 12% of the Earth's terrestrial area, with over half of this designated since 1970, and are thus a unique example of governments and other stakeholders consciously changing management of land and water at a significant scale. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has a global programme to complete ecologically-representative protected area networks, and this is driving the creation of large numbers of new protected areas. But there is also growing criticism of protected areas because of the social costs of protection and doubts about their effectiveness. We acknowledge this criticism but believe that it is over-stated and applied to a protected area model that has already been replaced by newer thinking. As protected areas are becoming more complex in concept and more complicated in management, we review the six most important changes affecting them over the last 2 decades: (1) a new protected area definition with more emphasis on nature conservation; (2) a plurality of management and governance models; (3) acknowledgement of wider protected area benefits beyond nature conservation; (4) greater social safeguards for protected areas; (5) evidence that protected areas are effective conservation tools; and (6) a new emphasis on larger protected areas, transboundary protected areas, connectivity conservation and landscape approaches. We conclude by considering fresh challenges as a result of policy changes and the global criminal wildlife trade, and consider the potential of the forthcoming 2014 IUCN World Parks Congress.

Vultures in Africa are being poisoned deliberately by poachers to prevent the birds alerting authorities to the poachers’ illegal activities, or for harvesting and sale of body parts for use in witchcraft. Hundreds of vultures can be killed at a single poisoned elephant Loxodonta africana carcass, and although field staff trained in poison response activities can limit the damage, mortalities remain numerous. We used the population viability analysis programme VORTEX to simulate seven 100-year-long scenarios investigating various rates of poisoning mortalities and the remedial effects of poison response activities on a population of Critically Endangered white-backed vultures Gyps africanus breeding in Kruger National Park, South Africa. In six scenarios the population declined (λ < 1); in three scenarios the population remained extant over the 100-year simulations but declined by 60–90% from a starting size of 2,400 individuals. In two scenarios one poisoned elephant carcass left untreated and causing the greatest number of vulture deaths was modelled as a catastrophic event with a 50% probability of annual occurrence, which resulted in a 100% probability of population extinction, with a mean time to extinction of 55–62 years. Effective poison response activities were modelled as a 70% reduction of mortality at each poisoned elephant carcass and resulted in population persistence after 100 years but with a c. 90% reduction in size (final n = 205). We highlight that although poison response activities will not prevent poisoning from occurring, they form an essential part of wider conservation actions designed to prevent local extinctions of vultures or other vulnerable species.

To obtain information on density of tiger Panthera tigris in selectively logged forest, a 9-month camera-trapping survey was conducted over elevations of 190–850 m in lowland and hill/upper dipterocarp and lower montane forests in Gunung Basor Forest Reserve, Peninsular Malaysia. Capture-recapture sampling methods were used to estimate tiger population density in the Reserve. The number of individual tigers captured was six. Using the Mh jackknife estimator the average capture probability per sampling occasion was 0.28 and the corresponding estimate of population size 8 ± SE 1.89. The overall probability of photo-capturing a tiger present in the sampled area was 0.75. Using an approach based on distances between photo-captures, a buffer width of 3.22 km and an effectively sampled area of 308 km2 was estimated. This resulted in a density estimate of 2.59 ± SE 0.71 adult tigers per 100 km2. The results indicate that selectively logged forests such as Gunung Basor Forest Reserve have the potential to accommodate a high density of tigers. Decision makers and conservation planners should not therefore perceive selectively logged forests to have limited conservation value. Further research on the ecology of tigers and their prey in selectively logged forests is urgently needed. Such research would enable conservationists to recommend tiger-friendly management guidelines for sustainable forest management and thereby significantly contribute to tiger conservation in Malaysia.

Private nature reserves created by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are increasing, and their growing number and extent means that they can potentially contribute to biodiversity goals at a global scale. However, the success of these reserves depends on the legal, economic and institutional conditions framing their creation and management. We explored these conditions, and the opportunities and challenges facing conservation organizations in managing private nature reserves, across several countries, with an emphasis on Australia. Results from 17 semi-structured interviews with representatives of private conservation organizations indicated that while private reserves may enhance the conservation estate, challenges remain. Legal frameworks, especially tenure and economic laws, vary across and within countries, presenting conservation organizations with significant opportunities or constraints to owning and/or managing private nature reserves. Many acquired land without strategic acquisition procedures and secured funding for property acquisition but not management, affecting the long-term maintenance of properties. Other typical problems were tied to the institutional capacity of the organizations. Greater planning within organizations, especially financial planning, is required and NGOs must understand opportunities and constraints present in legislative frameworks at the outset. Organizations must establish their expertise gaps and address them. To this end, partnerships between organizations and/or with government can prove critical.

The mountain tapir has already disappeared from parts of its range in the high Andes of South America and remaining populations are severely threatened by hunting and habitat destruction. With an estimated population of fewer than 2500 individuals, urgent measures are necessary to secure a future for the species. This paper presents an overview of the species throughout its range as well as some of the main results of the author's studies on tapir ecology. Finally, a plea is made for conservation action in Sangay National Park, which is one of the species's main strongholds.

Methods that accurately estimate animal abundance or density are crucial for wildlife management. Although numerous techniques are available, there have been few comparisons of the precision and cost-effectiveness of different approaches. We assess the precision and cost of three methods for estimating densities of the Endangered Grevy's zebra Equus grevyi. We compare distance sampling and photographic capture–recapture, and a new technique, the random encounter model (REM) that uses camera-trap encounter rates to estimate density. All three methods provide comparable density estimates for Grevy's zebra and are preferable to the common practice of raw counts. Photographic capture–recapture is the most precise and line-transect distance sampling the least precise. Line transects and photographic capture–recapture surveys are cost-effective in the first year and REM is most cost-effective in the long-term. The methods used here for Grevy's zebra may be applied to other rangeland ungulates. We suggest that for single species monitoring programmes in which individuals can be identified, photographic capture–recapture surveys may be the preferred method for estimating wildlife abundances. When encounter rates are low, distance sampling lacks the precision of the other methods but its cost advantage may make it appropriate for long-term or multi-species monitoring programmes. The REM is an efficient and precise method of estimating densities but has high initial equipment costs. We believe REM has the potential to work well for many species but it requires independent estimates of animal movements and group size.

Identifying individuals through time can provide information on population size, composition, survival and growth rates. Identification using photographs of distinctive physical characteristics has been used in many species to replace conventional marker tagging. We evaluated photographic records over 7 years of Vulnerable whale sharks Rhincodon typus, at an aggregation in the Seychelles, for estimation of population size and structure. We collected 11,681 photographs of which only 1,149 were suitable for comparison using semi-automated matching software (I3S) of individual spot patterns behind the gills. Photo-identification showed that there was considerable loss of marker tags and enabled an estimation of the rate of tag loss. The combination of photo-identification with marker tagging identified a total of 512 individual sharks over 2001–2007. Of these, there were 115 resightings in subsequent years with two sharks identified in 2001 resighted 5 years later in 2006 and another shark sighted in 2001 resighted in 2007. Estimates of abundance using conventional open mark–recapture models for 2004–2007 were 348–488 sharks (95% confidence interval), with a high level of entry into the population by itinerants. Annual apparent survival probability was 0.343–0.781 over 2004–2007, with an average annual recapture probability of 0.201. These results are the first to suggest a highly transient population of whale sharks around the Seychelles, indicating that international or at least regional-scale conservation approaches are required.

Close proximity between humans and large predators results in high levels of conflict. We investigated the extent of, and factors leading to, this conflict through focal group and individual interviews in all villages around Pendjari Biosphere Reserve, northern Benin. Livestock losses from 2000 to 2007 (n = 752) were reported to be mainly caused by spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta (53.6%), baboon Papio anubis (24.8%), and lion Panthera leo (18.0%). These predators mainly predated sheep and goats (52.1%) and pigs (42.3%), with lions being the main predators of cattle (78.9%). Lion and hyaena diets were more diverse than that of baboons, which killed only small stock. The level of conflict increased during 2000–2007. Predation rate differs between predator species and is significantly influenced by month, rainfall of the month before the predation event, and length of the dry period in a year. The geographical position of the village, the distance of the village to the Park and the number of herbivores legally killed every hunting season also influenced predation intensity. Our findings suggest that improvement of husbandry techniques and education will reduce conflicts and contribute to improved conservation of these threatened predators.

The Endangered Asian elephant Elephas maximus comes into widespread conflict with agrarian communities, necessitating active management. The species’ distribution is of primary importance for management planning. However, data-based countrywide distribution maps have not been available for any of the 13 Asian elephant range states. We conducted a 5 × 5 km grid-based questionnaire survey in Sri Lanka to produce an island-wide elephant distribution map. Elephants occur over 59.9% of Sri Lanka and people are resident in 69.4% of elephant range, indicating the challenge of separating people and elephants at a landscape scale. Elephants in Sri Lanka have lost 16.1% of their range since 1960 but their current distribution remains largely contiguous. We found the range of adult males was 15.1% greater, and less seasonal, than that of herds, possibly because males have a higher tolerance for conflict with people. The distribution of conflict coincided with the co-occurrence of humans and elephants. We conclude that a human–elephant coexistence model is the only viable option for effectively mitigating human–elephant conflict and conserving elephants in Sri Lanka. The findings are currently being used to effect a paradigm change in elephant conservation and management in the country.

The majority of the biomass and biodiversity of life on the Earth is accounted for by microbes. They play pivotal roles in biogeochemical cycles and harbour novel metabolites that have industrial uses. For these reasons the conservation of microbial ecosystems, communities and even specific taxa should be a high priority. We review the reasons for including microorganisms in conservation agenda. We discuss some of the complications in this endeavour, including the unresolved argument about whether microorganisms have intrinsic value, which influences some of the non-instrumental motivations for their conservation and, from a more pragmatic perspective, exactly what it is that we seek to conserve (microorganisms, their habitats or their gene pools). Despite complications, priorities can be defined for microbial conservation and we provide practical examples of such priorities.

The Critically Endangered Arabian leopard Panthera pardus nimr faces severe reduction in population size and is on the brink of extinction. This situation is, to a large extent, a result of human activity. The small populations of this subspecies are restricted to a few areas in the Arabian Peninsula, Israel and Jordan. Information required for conservation of this subspecies, including reliable population estimates and the range of individuals, is currently unavailable. To estimate population size and assign gender to individuals in the population in Israel we used molecular markers in leopard DNA extracted from scats collected in intensive surveys throughout the Judean Desert and the Negev Highlands. This non-invasive mode of sampling, combined with the availability of high-resolution markers (microsatellites) and sex-specific DNA-sequences, was successful in identifying both individuals and gender. The results indicated the existence of a male and two females in the Judean Desert, and four males and one female in the Negev Highlands. Although the non-invasive procedure we used may underestimate the leopard's true population size, continuous monitoring of population size and sex composition of this small population using scatology is a key component for the management of this species. These data, especially if used in conjunction with similar data from other countries within the subspecies' range, will assist in the establishment of conservation plans for the Arabian leopard.

One of the main threats to the survival of Asian turtles is the demand in China for turtles for use as food and medicine products. As the demand for turtle products escalated over the past 20 years entrepreneurs initiated commercial breeding facilities for profit. To gain a better understanding of the scale of the captive turtle trade we conducted a survey of the 1,499 large turtle farms known by branch offices of the Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office and the Provincial Forestry Bureaus. The results from the 684 respondent farms (46%) indicated that a total of >300 million turtles are sold per year and are worth c. USD 750 million. Although the bulk of these figures comprise the common Chinese softshell turtle Pelodiscus sinensis many other species are also farmed, including Critically Endangered species and even species native to North America. As 54% of known farms did not respond to our survey we suggest that the trade in captive turtles is probably a multi-billion dollar industry. This is likely considering that many Chinese turtle farms operate covertly and are thus impossible to survey. The large scale of turtle farming in China raises questions about the impact of so many threatened turtles being bred and sold for profit. Because the commercial breeding of these species is so well developed and large in scale, the deleterious impact is serious and difficult to control.

Only a small percentage of tropical forests are legally protected and so, if we are to conserve tropical forest species we must encourage sustainable exploitation of unprotected forest areas. Selective timber harvesting is frequently cited as a sustainable use of tropical forests and the authors studied the effects of this kind of exploitation on natural treefall rates, an important regulative process, in the Kibale Forest, Uganda. Their results indicate that levels of destruction typical of capital intensive mechanised timber harvesting seriously disrupt the dynamic balance of the forest. They discuss alternative methods for selective timber harvesting that would be less disruptive and present an objective method which may help rain forest managers determine which multiple-use options are compatible with rain forest conservation.

Lion Panthera leo populations and distributions in Africa have contracted considerably in the past 30 years. Recent policy debates focus on restricting trophy hunting as a measure to address concerns about excessive offtakes of lions. We review the impact of trophy hunting in relation to lion conservation goals, using comparative case studies from Southern and East Africa, which together contain most of Africa's remaining lion populations. The comparison demonstrates that the impact of trophy hunting on lion populations is variable and shaped by the way trophy hunting is managed and wildlife is governed in different range states. In Tanzania, the most important lion range state, hunting produces significant revenues but weaknesses in how hunting is managed and revenues are distributed undermine the potential of hunting and encourage overharvesting. In Southern Africa linkages are stronger between revenue generated by trophy hunting and lion conservation outcomes on private and communal lands. Trophy hunting is most beneficial to lion conservation where revenues and user rights over wildlife are devolved, ensuring benefits from lion hunting compensate for their costs to local people, and where hunting is managed through long-term and competitively allocated concession systems. Policy interventions should focus on supporting trophy hunting as a conservation tool where it is effective and well-managed, and work to promote reform of hunting and wildlife governance elsewhere.

Despite a ≥75% reduction in the geographic range of Mongolian gazelles Procapra gutturosa over the past 50 years, the species is still recognized as the most numerous large grassland herbivore in Asia. Its actual population size, however, is still disputed, and we therefore estimated its numbers in an 80,000 km2 area in the eastern steppe of Mongolia by driving long-distance (1,200–1,400 km) transect surveys during spring and autumn 2000–2002. Quantitative estimates of gazelle numbers are essential for understanding the causes of changes in the population, and thus devising conservation strategies to assure its long-term viability. Observed herds ranged in size from 1–4,000; among surveys, median herd sizes varied from 14–42. Density estimates varied from 10.7 gazelles km−2 in spring to 11.5 gazelles km−2 in autumn, with total population estimates of 803,820 (483,790–1,330,100 95% confidence interval) and 870,625 (499,432–1,491,278 95% confidence interval), respectively. Confidence limits were wide, and to obtain a coefficient of variation of 20%, transect lengths would need to be extended three- to four-fold. Until more efficient means for conducting population surveys can be implemented, driving long-distance transects, combined with distance analysis, seem to provide the best quantitative estimate of Mongolian gazelle populations.

Brazil safeguards a vast network of parks and reserves, termed conservation units. The creation of conservation units follows a rigorous legal protocol that grants them long-term stability under varying degrees of formal protection against land-use change. Degazettement, downsizing or downgrading any conservation unit requires a law to be passed. Recent shifts in Brazilian conservation policy have, however, favoured infrastructure projects and agricultural land conversion, even when these initiatives are in direct conflict with established conservation units. Several bills have been proposed by the National Congress, threatening 27 conservation units and bringing the long-term political stability and legal immunity of hitherto sacrosanct reserves into serious question.