Recent studies have highlighted that illegal activities occurring within protected areas, including the poaching of fauna and flora, cannot be addressed with increased law enforcement alone. Moreover, research on the increasingly militarized nature of front-line conservation efforts has pointed to potentially detrimental aspects of such approaches. This has led to a shift in focus to identifying ways to further engage local communities in the prevention and reduction of wildlife crimes. However, few studies have examined the potential for changing the responsibilities of front-line conservation personnel or their views on such changes. Such insight is vital in forecasting the successful adoption of, or possible resistance towards, a more community-oriented policy. We examined rangers’ perceptions in Uganda to assess their attitudes towards traditional enforcement strategies and alternative, non-enforcement approaches for reducing illegal activities in protected areas. Our findings suggest that although respondents believed that traditional enforcement strategies (e.g. foot patrols) are important and effective in reducing wildlife crime, these strategies on their own were insufficient to address illegal activities. Study participants emphasized the importance of expanding the role of front-line rangers, in line with approaches suggested in the policing literature. We discuss the implications of our findings for transdisciplinary conservation science research and front-line conservation policy and practice.

Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was used in Conservation Science for characterization of ancient materials collected from works of art. The results demonstrate the feasibility of EBSD analysis on heterogeneous matrices as very small samples of paint layers collected from paintings. Two reference pigments were selected from those used by artists to investigate the relationship existing between EBSD pattern quality and properties of the investigated material (i.e., average atomic number, density, and Mohs hardness). The technique was also tested to investigate the pigment phases on two real samples collected from Romanino's Santa Giustina altarpiece, an oil on wood painting dated 1514 (Civic Museum, Padova, Italy). Results show for the first time the acquisition of EBSD patterns from painting samples mounted in resin, i.e., painting cross sections, opening a new powerful tool to elucidate the pigment phases avoiding large sampling on works of arts and to further study the complex mechanisms of pigment deterioration.

Laboratory X-ray powder diffraction was applied to investigate the pigments used by medieval artists in Ruthenian-Byzantine frescoes in the royal Wawel Cathedral in Krakow (Poland). It was found that red fragments contained cinnabar (PDF 06-0256), yellow contained goethite (PDF 29-0713), and blue pieces contained azurite (PDF 02-0153). The green pigment, quite difficult to identify, was finally established as green earths—pigments commonly used in Byzantine wall paintings. Calcite (PDF 24-0027) was detected in all the samples. Small amounts of quartz (PDF 46-1045) in the plaster samples were also detected. The absence or presence of only minute amounts of quartz is a characteristic feature of the Ruthenian-Byzantine frescoes. Malachite was not detected in the green parts of the frescoes, in contrast to earlier investigations of wall paintings in Poland. Experimental details and the results obtained in this study are described and discussed.

Laboratory X-ray powder diffraction was used to investigate mineralogical compositions of green pigments labeled by suppliers as “green earths.” It was found that glauconite and celadonite—minerals historically considered as the main ingredient of this pigment—were present only in Bohemian green earth, green earth from Thuringen (glauconite), and Bavarian green earth (celadonite). Other investigated pigments consist of mineralogical-component minerals with added synthetic organic colorants. The obtained results may be useful for scientists, restorers, and artists in proper choices of the pigments they use in their works.

Because of the complex interactions between socio-economic systems and remaining natural systems, conservation biology will need to be better integrated within a wider discipline of conservation science that is inherently integrated with the social sciences. Key to this progress will be the graduate training given to conservation scientists. We surveyed graduate students at the annual Student Conference on Conservation Science at Cambridge University in March 2007 to look at how current conservation science students view this need for integration. Our survey indicates that students want social science training alongside that in biology or ecology and that their current training in social science is inadequate for their future work in conservation.

This study investigated the effect of environmental variables such as soil class, soil water availability, topography and slope on spatial distribution patterns of tree species in a Brazilian Seasonal Semideciduous Forest area. Floristic and structural data for a tree community were obtained by sampling 100 plots 10 × 10 m in which every tree with trunk diameter (dbh) ⩾ 4.77 cm at 130 cm above ground level was sampled. The area under study showed a marked soil gradient, directly associated with the topography: flat hilltops with Al3+-rich Dystric Latosols give way to steep colluvial slopes with shallower and more Dystric Cambic Latosols without Al3+, changing over, at the bottom of the hollows, to Epieutrophic Cambisols richer in nutrients. The floristic-sociological parameters analysed for the soil habitats did not differ statistically from each other. The diversity and equability indices were 3.6 and 0.84, 3.48 and 0.85, 3.49 and 0.84 for the Dystric Latosol, Dystric Cambic Latosol and Epieutrophic Cambisol, respectively. The soil variables (related to the fertility and texture) and the soil water regime (drainage) were probably the principal factors determining the spatial distribution patterns of tree species in the forest.