Mountains are fragile ecosystems and globally important as water towers of the earth. Sustainable use of mountains depends upon conservation and optimal use of soil and water resources (Ives & Messerli 1989). Despite regional and global efforts to understand the hydrology of the Himalayan region, soil and water conservation (SWC) programmes in this region mainly rely upon engineering measures. For want of cost-effective vegetative (bioengineering) measures (Deoja et al. 1991), and land use and land cover conducive to SWC, the fragile Himalayan watersheds continue to lose soil and water at alarming rates.

Most developed communities, such as Japan, the European Union and the USA, are experiencing a shortage of sites for waste disposal facilities (WDFs) (e.g. Alter 1991; Schall 1992; Chilton 1993; Ikeguchi 1994; Anon. 1994; Berenyi 1996; European Commission 1999). Strong control of local public bodies over site selection decisions and public opposition appear to be the chief causes (Schall 1992; Charles 1993; Capua & Magagni 2000). Recently, in the USA adequate landfill capacity has been ensured, but mainly because of the ease of planning permission for new very large regional landfills (Berenyi 1999). This further illustrates the artificial nature of waste disposal site availability.

The safe minimum standard (SMS) approach is a collective choice process that prescribes protecting a minimum level of a renewable natural resource unless the social costs of doing so are somehow excessive or intolerably high. Arguments for the SMS are typically invoked in settings involving considerable uncertainty and potentially irreversible losses. However, the SMS is most commonly viewed as existing only on the periphery of thought in traditional environmental and resource economics. The specific objectives are: (1) to define the SMS approach generally and examine theoretical support, particularly for its application in endangered species decision settings; (2) to examine the relationship between an SMS approach and benefit-cost analysis (BCA); (3) to examine the relationship between an SMS approach and non-market valuation; (4) to compare an SMS approach to alternative definitions of sustainability; and (5) to review the general consistency of the SMS approach with the USA's Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973, as amended. Recent attention on this pragmatic policy approach has been something far greater than cursory, with advances and detailed discussions on theoretical considerations, philosophical underpinnings and case study applications. While the SMS emerges as a fairly coarse policy instrument, its pragmatic value is seen in complex environmental policy applications, such as endangered species protection.

Despite scientific concern about Amazon deforestation and the impacts of the Amazon gold rush, few researchers have assessed the long-term impacts of small-scale gold mining on forest cover. This study estimates deforestation from gold mining and analyses the regeneration of abandoned mining areas in the Suriname Amazon. Fieldwork in December 1998 included observations and ecological measurements, as well as qualitative interviews with local miners about mining history and technology. Vegetation cover of abandoned mining sites of different ages was compared with that in old-growth forest. By present estimates, gold miners clear 48–96 km2 of old-growth forest in Suriname annually. Based on different assumptions about changes in technology and the amount of mining that takes place on previously mined sites, cumulative deforestation is expected to reach 750–2280 km2 by 2010. Furthermore, the analysis of abandoned mining sites suggests that forest recovery following mining is slow and qualitatively inferior compared to regeneration following other land uses. Unlike areas in nearby old-growth forest, large parts of mined areas remain bare ground, grass, and standing water. The area deforested by mining may seem relatively small, but given the slow forest recovery and the concentration of mining in selected areas, small-scale gold mining is expected to reduce local forest cover and ecosystem services in regions where mining takes place.

The distributions of forest and deforestation throughout the tropics are poorly known despite their importance to regional biodiversity and global climate and biodiversity. Deforestation estimates based on surveys or sampling have large errors, and high-resolution, wall-to-wall mapping of tropical forests is necessary to assess the impacts of fragmentation. Landsat satellite images from the mid-1980s and early 1990s were thus used to map closed-canopy tropical forest extent and anthropogenic deforestation in an approximately 700 000 km2 area of Amazonian Bolivia with precipitation >1000 mm yr−1. Total potential forest cover extent, including tropical deciduous forest, was 448 700 km2, while the area of natural non-forest formations was 245 100 km2. The area deforested was 15 500 km2 in the mid-1980s and 24 700 km2 by the early 1990s. The rate of tropical deforestation in the forest zone of Bolivia with >1000 mm yr−1 precipitation below 1500 m elevation and north of 19° S, was 1529 km2 yr−1 from 1985–1986 to 1992–1994. Our estimates of deforestation are significantly lower than those reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). We document a spatially-concentrated ‘deforestation zone’ in Santa Cruz where >60% of the Bolivian deforestation has occurred. These results indicate that the rate of deforestation in Bolivia has been rapid despite a relatively small human population, and, as in Brazil, clearance has concentrated in the more deciduous forests.

Throughout much of the tropics, human-wildlife conflict impedes local support for national parks. By channelling tourism revenue to local residents, conservationists hope to offset wildlife costs and improve local attitudes toward conservation. To date tourism revenue-sharing (TRS) programmes have met mixed success. Local conditions and national policies that shape the success of TRS programmes were identified by comparing the experiences of both implementers and beneficiaries of pilot TRS programmes at three parks in western Uganda. Between 1995 and 1998, communities around these parks used a total of US $83 000 of tourism revenue to build 21 schools, four clinics, one bridge, and one road. In 1996, the Ugandan parliament passed legislation that changed both the amount of money available for TRS and the institutions responsible for sharing the money. The programme was suspended at all three parks while the implementing agency (Uganda Wildlife Authority) struggled to design a programme that complied with the new legislation. TRS funds collected before 1996 were shared through 1998, but since then no revenue has been shared. However, a revised TRS programme is expected to resume in 2001. In semi-structured interviews, both implementers and beneficiaries evaluated local TRS programmes and compared them to other benefit-sharing projects, particularly those promoting sustainable use of non-timber products within park boundaries (n = 44). Both groups of respondents listed revenue-sharing as the most important advantage of living next to a national park. Seventy-two per cent of respondents indicated that they thought TRS had improved attitudes towards the protected areas, and 53% thought TRS was more important then sustainable use of non-timber forest products. Although respondents were generally positive about TRS, in informal discussions respondents repeatedly mentioned four potential obstacles to TRS success, namely poorly defined TRS policies and unsteady implementing institutions, corruption, inadequate funds, and numerous stakeholders with differing priorities. From this survey and literature from experiences in other African countries, there are four key components of successful revenue-sharing programmes: long-term institutional support, appropriate identification of the target community and project type, transparency and accountability, and adequate funding. With firm institutional support and realistic expectations, TRS can play an important role in improving local attitudes towards conservation.

Indigenous systems of management for regulating extraction of non-timber forest products (NTFP) have not been well documented in arid zone grazing lands. Conservation projects have therefore lacked information on customary rights to trees, while they have enforced systems of tree resource management that often conflicted with the indigenous system. This study focused on the indigenous tree tenure system of the Turkana pastoralists called ekwar (plural ngikwarin). The indigenous tree management system in 15.4 km2 of the Turkwel River floodplain woodlands near Lodwar, Kenya was investigated. The study began in 1990 after impoundment of the Turkwel Gorge Dam. In 1990 and 1998, Turkana pastoralists were interviewed about the ekwar. In individual ngikwarin woody cover, wood volume and woody-plant density were measured, and wood extraction assessed in terms of stems and twigs removed by the pastoralists and the urban population of Lodwar. Intensity of charcoal burning was assessed in terms of the density of earthen kilns, and livestock impact in terms of browsing frequency on woody plants. Potential Acacia tortilis litter production was estimated and an ekwar quality index developed to describe woodland productivity conditions. Tree produce was shared with and leased to friends and relatives. Woody cover showed no significant changes, while woody-plant density and volume declined, over the 8-year period. The Turkana usually do not cut live trees, but use dead trees and dry tree-parts for making charcoal. Increased kiln density and increased extraction of tree-parts were considered to be indicative of increased pressure on the riverine woodlands. Livestock browsing did not seem to contribute to woodland degradation. However, decline in woody-plant density and volume might have contributed to the reduction of litter production of A. tortilis. Trends in woodlands in the floodplain might be associated with damming of the Turkwel River and local anthropogenic pressures. Also, the ekwar system of tree tenure seemed to be threatened by the official forestry policy that it be ignored. Incorporating the ekwar system into the forestry conservation policy may achieve sustainable use and improve conservation of the Turkwel River floodplain woodlands.

Ensuring local support for protected areas is increasingly viewed as an important element of biodiversity conservation. This is often predicated on the provision of benefits from protected areas, and a common means of providing such benefits is tourism development. However, the relationship between receipt of tourism benefits and support for conservation has not been explored. This study examined local attitudes towards protected area tourism and the effects of tourism benefits on local support for Komodo National Park, Indonesia. Komodo National Park is a flagship for tourism in a region where protected areas are becoming increasingly visited and where local support for conservation has not been investigated. Results of a questionnaire survey revealed positive attitudes towards tourism and high support for conservation (93.7%), as well as a recognition that tourism is dependent upon the existence of the park. Positive attitudes towards tourism were positively related to the receipt of economic benefits, and to support for conservation. However, a positive relationship between receipt of tourism benefits and support for conservation was not identified, suggesting that benefits from protected area conservation make no difference to local support for conservation. Local people recognized distributional inequalities in tourism benefits, and the most common complaints were of local inflation and tourist dress code. To fully identify the impacts of protected area tourism, long-term studies of local attitudes alongside traditional economic and ecological assessments are recommended.

In tropical prawn (shrimp) trawl fisheries it is daunting to assess the sustainability of bycatch species because they are diverse and there is little historical and biological information for quantitative stock assessments. We developed a process to examine the likely impact of prawn trawling on the sustainability of bycatch species and applied this to fish bycatch in the Australian Northern Prawn Fishery. The 411 fish bycatch species were ranked with respect to biological and ecological criteria that contributed to two overriding characteristics, namely first, their susceptibility to capture and mortality due to prawn trawling, and second the population's capacity to recover after depletion. The rank of each species on these two characteristics determined its relative capacity to sustain trawling, and therefore its priority for research and management. Species that were the least likely to be sustainable came from the families Apogonidae, Ariidae, Bathysauridae, Callionymidae, Congridae, Diodontidae, Labridae, Opisthognathidae, Plotosidae, Synodontidae and Tetraodontidae. These species are highly susceptible to capture by trawls, they are benthic or demersal, their primary habitat is soft sediments, and their diet may include prawns. The recovery capacity of these species is also low, with the estimated removal rate by trawling high. The species that were the most likely to be sustainable came from the families Carangidae, Clupeidae, Ephippidae, Scombridae, Sphyraenidae and Terapontidae. They are less susceptible to capture by trawls, they are generally pelagic, their primary habitat is not in trawl grounds, and they have a broad depth distribution and range in the fishery. These species also have a greater capacity to recover, as most individuals have bred before capture, and a low estimated removal rate by trawling. The final ranking of the species must be used with caution because of the assumptions made in the process. However, the process is a valuable first step towards ensuring the sustainability of the bycatch species. Because of the simplicity of the process, it can be readily used in fisheries, particularly those with diverse bycatch, to manage the sustainability of their bycatch.