The third meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP-3) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) concluded with the signing of the Kyoto Protocol (UNFCCC 1997). After much political wrangling and an extended all night negotiation session, delegates agreed to a Protocol that mandates specific emissions limits for industrialized countries and economies in transition (collectively listed as Annex I countries). The Protocol mandates that the average anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emission of each Annex I country should be no more than its agreed allowance in the ‘first quantified emission limitation commitment period’ which is defined as the five years between the beginning of 2008 and the end of 2012 (UNFCCC 1997, Article 3.7). The base-period for most countries in Annex I is 1990. The exceptions, which were granted during COP-2 (UNFCCC 1996, decision 9/CP.2), are Bulgaria (1989), Hungary (1985-87), Poland (1988) and Romania (1989).

Vandergeest (1996) suggested that the protected area (PA) system in Thailand is too large. He proposed that the state should recognize claims to private property rights within the PA system and subject remaining lands to collective property rights where villagers would be allowed to burn, cut and graze for commercial purposes. We disagree and summarize some of our concerns below.

Natural resource planning theory now accepts that laypersons may acquire scientifically correct knowledge of nature by informal means and that sense of place, or ecological identity, motivates citizens to assume personal responsibility for their own bioregion. Previous research has identified childhood foraging, that is, searching for and using wild plants and animals of distinguishable kinds, as one informal means by which citizens learn about local ecosystems, but ethnographic evidence suggests foraging may also contribute substantially to the development of ecological identity. Does foraging reflect the ecological characteristics of local bioregions closely enough to structure ecological identity in industrial populations too? By way of addressing this question, studies were conducted to test predictions about the foraging repertoires of people growing up in two separate, but related, bioregions of Canada, centred on Niagara and Ottawa respectively. The most important of these predictions were, first, that regional patterns of foraging experience would correspond to regional ecological patterns, and second, that foraging repertoires would evince within-region similarities and between-region differences. Results confirm that the childhood foraging experience of ordinary Canadian citizens responds to important ecological parameters at the regional scale and in so doing constitutes an aspect of place-specific culture. These findings have a bearing on conservation policy, particularly for multicultural societies.

Participation by local communities in management is widely considered a means of sustaining protected areas. In parts of the world with a history of armed conflict, the chances of such an approach being successfully adopted might seem remote. One such area is the Maputo Elephant Reserve in southern Mozambique. The aim was to improve understanding of the local people's use of natural resources and perceptions of the Reserve's impact. Interviews and questionnaires distributed in four different villages were used to estimate the relative value of these resources in relation to the attitude of the local people towards the Reserve. The people gave a relative value rank for each specific use of each plant, animal and fish resource. On average 60% of the households exploited more than two different resource categories. The plant resources of the Reserve were used by 71% of the households and were valued more highly than animal and fish resources. Plants were used for many purposes; construction material, fuelwood and fruits had the highest relative values. Antelopes, hippopotamus and elephants were valued highest amongst a range of animal species which were hunted by 21% of households. Amongst uses of animals, consumption, use of the skins and commercial sale of the meat were especially important. When asked if they liked the Reserve, 88% of respondents answered positively. The attitude towards the Reserve was correlated with crop damage experiences; people with crop damage caused by elephants, hippos or bushpigs, were more negative. Attitude of respondents was inversely related to the number of species invading their agricultural fields. Resource use intensity, use purpose, resource value and attitude were different amongst sites and dependent on site-specific circumstances, different management strategies could be necessary for the four sites. A resource management plan should be drawn up, local people should be included in the management team and steps should be taken to improve the relationship between the Reserve's authorities and the local population generally.

The Picos de Europa are representative of the diverse cultural landscapes of Spain that are currently threatened by changes in traditional management practices. They contain the first national park to be declared in Europe, and, although this has recently been extended, there is no policy to support the traditional agricultural practices that maintain the landscape. The Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) scheme in Britain is described in order to provide an appropriate policy background within which the ecological characteristics of the region could be maintained. The general background to the environment of the region is then described, with its unique interactions amongst limestone rock, climate, species and anthropogenic influences that have produced a complex cultural landscape. A statistical classification of the region was constructed which, in conjunction with a field survey, enabled the ecological resources to be assessed, and also identified the principal threats to the character of the region. It is suggested that ESA-style legislation could provide a valuable policy instrument to encourage maintenance of the cultural landscape and some appropriate prescriptions are proposed for this purpose.

Bushmeat consumption and trade is the greatest threat to biodiversity conservation in African forest regions. In many areas cable snaring is the principal hunting method employed by subsistence and commercial hunters. Methods for studying cable snaring and bushmeat markets were compared at a single site in the Central African Republic, in order to identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of the methods. Dependence upon any single method results in incomplete information on the ecological impacts of cable snare hunting and bushmeat marketing.

Farm forestry is increasingly promoted in many countries as a land-use option which is likely to provide benefits in terms of improving the viability of agriculture, developing additional timber resources for industry, and enhancing regional development. This paper draws upon experiences of farm forestry in Australia to identify some lessons for its development that may be relevant to other countries. The paper provides an overview of farm forestry in the Australian context and reports on a recent review of leading case studies to provide some insights into means of future development. Three case studies are included to illustrate the diverse nature, and multiple benefits sought, of farm forestry. The important requirements of landholders pioneering farm forestry relate to: managing risks, participating in research and development, contributing to information exchange, addressing key farm issues, developing in-depth farm knowledge, establishing links with government and/or industry, and contributing to long-term community values.

Attitudes of local people to wildlife, and particularly to large animals, are an increasingly important element of conservation work, but attitudes may vary within a community according to gender, and prior experience of wildlife. Data were collected by questionnaire and informal interviews with 59 men and 57 women living on the southern edge of the Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda, to assess the influence of these factors in attitudes towards elephants, in an area from which they are now absent, and to conservation in general. It was hypothesized that prior experience of elephants might influence people's perceptions of them, and that this in turn might influence their attitudes towards the issue of elephant conservation. The results of this study did not generally support this. There was no evidence that people with prior experience of elephants were any more likely to support their conservation than were people who did not have prior experience of them. Within this community men and women expressed very different views as to the behaviour of elephants. Women were more likely than men to report that elephants were dangerous, irrespective of whether they had seen an elephant or not. Locally, conservation was considered to be particularly important and beneficial as a strategy because it 'should help ensure protection of people and their crops from marauding elephants and other animals'. Attitudes to, and expectations of, conservation as a strategy also varied between members of this community with respect to gender, but age and ethnic group were not good predictors of whether people were likely to be supportive of conservation issues or not.

Efforts to protect vulnerable environmental resources have focused largely on legal prohibitions and sanctions or on economic rewards or penalties. The role and importance of social and cultural factors have been much less considered. While theoretical arguments have addressed whether state institutions must be involved in resource protection, or whether private incentives can be manipulated to achieve desired outcomes, this preoccupation with either public sector or private sector solutions to the problems of environmental conservation has caused a neglect of social values and community consensus. The analysis offered here seeks to enlarge the debate from being two-sided to three-cornered.

By bringing in a third set of considerations, the socio-cultural, the analysis underscores that individual decisions are embedded in community and local contexts. All three kinds of incentives are considered to be potentially of equal importance for resource-conserving behaviour (RCB) vis-à-vis resource-degrading behaviour (RDB). The analysis is concerned first with the strength of different incentives in favour of RCB compared to RDB, comparing legal and economic with socio-cultural considerations affecting RCB and RDB. Efforts to protect vulnerable resources can seek to alter in an RCB direction the attitudes and incentives of people along any or all of these three dimensions of motivation, or they can seek to make a particular domain of motivation more salient if it is supportive of environmental conservation.

This analysis is proposed in part to get the socio-cultural domain taken more seriously alongside the legal and economic domains, as well as to prompt more systematic consideration of different kinds of policies, investments, actions or pronouncements that could shift the net balance of incentives in favour of RCB. While the analysis is admittedly simplified, there is utility in encouraging focused comparisons and evaluations of conservation alternatives. Examples of efforts to promote RCB in Madagascar and Costa Rica are given to illustrate this.

Medicinal plants are a valuable resource for regional economic development in the tropics, and the Eastern Himalaya in particular harbours many such species. Extensive deforestation and over-exploitation in this region have brought several species to the brink of extinction, and Coptis teeta is such an endangered species; yet scientific information for its conservation is lacking. Investigations on the distribution range, demography, ecology, cytology, reproductive biology and population genetic structure of C. teeta were carried out; it was found to be endemic to a small area, to occupy a very narrow habitat and to be highly dispersed with very small population sizes. Edaphic factors were found to have played a vital role in ecological preference, natural distribution and evolutionary divergence of the species. The species exhibits a ‘K’ strategy, high male sterility, low reproductive success and efficiency, inadequate seed dispersal, and little genetic variability. A combination of these genetic hurdles and external threats in the form of habitat disturbance and over-exploitation for commercial purposes could result in its extinction. The species was found to have highly specific microsite requirements that cannot be met in other habitats. It is argued that in situ conservation measures would be the best strategy for the continued survival of this species. For effective management of the species it is recommended that its habitat be declared a protected area with the active cooperation of local inhabitants including the sharing of benefits of conservation.