The seven species of Podocnemis river turtles, in northern South America, have long been important sources of meat for local people; as such they have many advantages over both native mammals and imported domestic species. But most of the populations are now severely depleted, and several species are endangered. The author suggests that if nesting beaches were effectively protected these turtles would recover their numbers, and this, combined with careful management and sustained-yield cropping, would ensure their survival as a valuable resource.

Isla Coiba off Panama's Pacific coast still has one of the country's finest stands of tropical forest, with abundant wildlife. With the threat of logging never far away the authors suggest it should be made a national park.

Round Island, off Mauritius, is a classic example of the disasters that can follow the introduction of potential pests such as goats and rabbits on a small island. Their destruction of the vegetation inevitably leads to the destruction of the wildlife, and on Round Island this includes four reptiles that are endemic, several that are local to Mauritius and its islands, and several endemic plants. The author was a member of a scientific party which spent five weeks studying the island in July and August 1975.

In Mato Grosso, Brazil, the authors found what may be the largest marsh deer population in South America, numbering possibly as many as 7000 animals. But it is seriously threatened, following three bad breeding seasons, 1975–77, attributable, they suspect, to disease, perhaps brucellosis which is common in the cattle of the area. Heavy flooding has also taken a toll. The marsh deer is already listed in the Red Data Book as a threatened species.

The author shows how the Kafue lechwe in Zambia are dependent on the complicated flood regime of the Kafue Flats. But the dams that have been built on the Kafue River to provide electricity for industry are likely to diminish both the extent and the duration of the flooding so drastically as to threaten the survival of the Kafue lechwe.

Commercial hunting, habitat destruction, poaching, competition with domestic livestock and infection by their diseases, especially foot-and-mouth, have all contributed to reduce the once extremely abundant venado to an estimated wild population today of about 80 animals. The author with other Argentinian scientists is making a study, financed by WWF, in preparation for management plans that it is hoped will save this endangered deer.

Professor Bannikov describes how the USSR has created nature reserves to protect individual rare species so that today all endangered mammals are protected in reserves or sanctuaries; several rare species have been greatly increased in numbers and reintroduced in other areas. The article is the talk Professor Bannikov, who is a Vice-President of the FPS, gave at the Society's Annual General Meeting on July 5 in London.

Britain has a mainly temperate climate, but there are some hot habitats, such as sand dunes, heathlands and shallow-water areas, which may be vital to the survival of certain species – Dartford warbler, sand lizard, natterjack toad are examples. The author suggests it is therefore vital to conserve extensive examples of these habitats to preserve the wildlife that depends on them. Unfortunately they are habitats that have suffered considerable destruction.

The author has studied the behaviour of the lechwe on the Kafue Flats, and shows how their remarkable breeding behaviour would be destroyed by changes in the flood regime of the Flats; this in turn could destroy this unique subspecies.

A resident in Hong Kong describes this British colony's trade in wild animals, as reported by a group of interested observers who kept a watch on markets and shops, coupled with the inadequate government statistics. The bulk of the trade is with China, but imports also include rhino horn and enormous quantities of ivory from Africa.

I visited the Galibi Nature Reserve in Surinam, probably one of the most easily accessible turtle reserves for visitors in the world, in the first week of June 1978, accompanied by the resident warden, George Plak.

In 1972 the Tayrona National Park, on Colombia's Caribbean coast, was suddenly threatened with a multi-million-dollar tourist complex to be built within the park boundaries. But Colombians in thousands objected to the plan–over 50,000 signed a petition to the Government. Eventually, in 1976, a presidential decree permanently excluded the proposed tourist development from Tayrona, a victory for conservation that the author believes could have resounding effects in Latin America.

Morocco still has wild areas and wildlife to save. But conservation is linked with forestry and where there is conflict forestry takes priority, says the author, who spent six months there in 1975 on a WWF commission. Destruction of birds as well as their habitat was widespread. The need for outside help to provide conservation education particularly in the forest service is urgent.

Despite its dense population Burundi still has a wildlife remnant that includes hippopotamus, buffalo, waterbuck and bushbuck, crocodiles, monkeys and many birds, especially water birds. But there are no nature reserves, and there is no legal protection. Now the Government has commissioned wildlife surveys, including one by the author, and there are plans to create a 50,000-hectare national park in the Ruvubu Valley, as well as some smaller reserves, and to preserve the surviving forest on the Zaire–Nile watershed.

The author spent two months in 1977 studying conservation problems in Maui, in the Hawaiian Islands, especially those of the nene goose project. Captive breeding has been successful in saving this species, and over 400 birds have been released on Maui, but predation and habitat destruction by introduced goats, pigs, rats and mongooses are preventing the geese from building up these wild populations.

Surinam is one of the few countries in the world where uninhabited and undisturbed tropical rain forest still covers large areas. The Government is fully aware of the importance of this natural heritage. Wildlife is protected, and eight nature reserves, ranging in size from 4000 to 22,000 ha, have been created to protect representative habitats – forest, savannas, coastal flats and important breeding beaches for Kemp's ridley, green and leatherback turtles.

The author suggests that the Kalamaloue National Park in north Cameroon, where he worked in 1974 and 1975, has considerable potential despite its small size. Well populated with a large variety of mammals and birds and, unlike many African parks, safe to walk in, it offers scope for both tourism and scientific research.