Conservation programme planning involves allocating a limited budget amongst different potential conservation projects. The selection of projects for funding is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and a number of competing objectives such as ecological protection, recreation and community relations. The purposes of this paper are to summarize the quantitative methods currently used in deciding which conservation projects to fund and to present a general methodology based on decision analysis that can be used for making conservation programme planning decisions. The methodology directly links the proposed contributions of projects to the objectives of the conservation agency, and it includes an explicit consideration of uncertainty and a conversion of ordinal scores into utilities. The methodology is a rational way of making decisions in conservation situations that are characterized by high degrees of uncertainty and subjective information. An application of decision analysis with staff from the New Zealand Department of Conservation is described. Some of the difficulties with using this methodology in practice are discussed in both the New Zealand and broader contexts. The conclusions are that conservation programme planning is currently based on managerial experience and relatively simple scoring procedures, but that a more rational approach based on decision analysis is possible, and additional research would reduce the amount of effort required to use decision analysis for conservation programme planning.

The Sierra de Tamaulipas is a biogeographically isolated mountain system in Northern Mexico, where habitat fragmentation by land-management practices is a possible threat to wildlife conservation. As a case example, we used GIS analyses to evaluate how human activities influence the landscape structure of jaguar (Panthera onca) habitat in the region. The study: (1) ranked potential habitat based on associations between environmental attributes (topography, streams and vegetation) and the frequency distribution of jaguar sighting records; (2) classified current land cover from a 1990 Landsat-TM image and mapped the landscape structure of high potential habitat; and (3) compared the degree to which mature natural vegetation is fragmented by different types of owners. Jaguar sites showed significant associations with tropical deciduous and oak forests, and low, west or south-east slopes, between 400 and 900 m. About 52% of the high potential habitat was mapped as mature natural vegetation, which was distributed as two large patches (28% of the land area) and many small forest patches (98% at < 80 ha). The number and size-class distribution of high-potential habitat patches varied little amongst four ownership types, but the dispersed distribution of more subsistence and commercial-based owners across the landscape suggests the need for collaborative participation in a conservation plan. From our study the need to scale up from managing individual land parcels is substantiated and areas that promote regional contiguity of jaguar habitat in the Sierra de Tamaulipas are identified.

Despite efforts spanning more than a decade, plastics continue to be the least recycled component of the USA's municipal waste stream. This study addresses a significant gap in knowledge about the operation of the plastics recycling market by investigating and analysing the characteristics and experiences of manufacturers and vendors of consumer products with recycled plastics content.

The study collected information through a survey of this segment of the USA's plastics recycling industry. The analysis of this information confirmed that the industry, as a whole, is young. Nevertheless, it offers a very wide variety of products. These face stiff competition from virgin resin plastic products, or from other virgin competing materials such as wood and cotton. Recycled plastic products are often more expensive than their competitors. Some manufacturers and vendors, especially the younger ones, addressed this problem by finding a niche market with consumers who are willing to pay a premium for environmentally friendly products. On the other hand, companies whose products are successfully competing against virgin products are more likely to have operated longer, to be vertically integrated (producing raw materials and consumer products), and to be more diversified in the number of resins they handle.

Manufacturers and vendors of recycled plastic products in the USA have gained considerable experience since the early years of plastics recycling. Nonetheless, they continue to face some serious challenges. Operators of materials recovery facilities that process PCR have an important role to play in supporting the industry by improving the quality of their product (i.e. PCR). However, the most important factor for securing continued growth of the industry is the expansion of markets for the industry's products. The responses to the survey indicate that, while there are actions that manufacturers and vendors can take to increase their chances of success, the effect of government policy remains overwhelming. Policymakers can facilitate growth in plastics recycling by stepping up their efforts to implement effective demand-side policies and by adopting policies to internalize the environmental and social externalities of plastics manufacturing and use.

There have been few studies of trace elements in cetaceans from Chinese waters despite considerable potential for contamination by this class of pollutant. Between 1993 and 1996, blubber, liver and/or kidney tissues were collected from 11 Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins (Sousa chinensis) and 20 finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides) stranded in Hong Kong. These tissues were analysed for 12 trace elements (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mo, Ni, Pb, Se, Sn and Zn). In general, concentrations of trace elements were similar to those of other cetacean populations and were deemed not to be of any toxicological significance. However, concentrations of mercury in the liver tissues of certain individuals were at levels which could constitute a health risk to the animals (up to 906 mg g-1 dry weight). Cadmium, mercury and selenium were observed to bio-accumulate with age, whereas concentrations of copper were highest in neonatal animals.

Development of management plans collaboratively with local people (e.g. co-management) is now an important means of protected area conservation. Yet formal protected area managers often need more specific information about the local people with whom they want to co-manage resources. We propose wider use of a method, which we describe, for studying time allocation, as an early step in the co-management of conservation areas. Use of time allocation data in co-management is illustrated from a conservation project in Danau Sentarum Wildlife Reserve (DSWR) in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Data from spot observations were analysed at three levels, namely those of 'macro-categories' (production, reproduction and leisure), an intermediate level (e.g. agriculture and food preparation), and that of individual activities (such as fishing, collection of forest foods and hunting).

In the DSWR, the allocation of time differed according to gender, ethnicity and seasonality, throughout the year of the study. Our experience suggests that knowledge of such patterns of behaviour can help conservation area managers to understand local people's needs and desires better, improve managers' rapport with local people, and make better cooperative plans with local people.

There is general consensus that resource-use strategies of recent migrants in tropical rainforests result in extensive deforestation and other negative environmental impacts. Less agreement exists about the nature and extent of the impact of indigenous and long-standing migrant communities living in rainforests. It has often been argued that the high value these communities place on local resources results in environmental conservation in areas under their control, but this is being increasingly challenged. The aim of this study was to contribute to this debate by comparing the regional environmental impact of indigenous and non-indigenous households in North-west Ecuador, with emphasis on tropical deforestation. The basic premise was that long-term resource-use strategies and related decision-making processes should be discernible as characteristic land-use patterns. Three indigenous and non-indigenous populations coexist in the study region, and demographic, land-use and historical sources of information were used to evaluate their relationship to regional deforestation in the period 1983-93. No significant differences were found in the recent deforestation associated with each group based on their cultural or ethnic background, although differences did exist in the past. The need to differentiate between a given environmental impact and the decision-making process behind it was also evident. In North-west Ecuador, markets, factors of production, and access to and control of resources, are key for understanding the environmental impact of local communities. Low-impact resource-uses often result from low-return productive activities in forest environments with low labour opportunity costs, high discount rates for income generated through activities compromising food security, and from uncertainty about future conditions. Environmental policy-making and programme design need to recognize this relationship. Conservation will be possible only if the perceived benefit to local users is greater than that of resource transformation, both of which respond to the dominant environmental, economic and social conditions at a given time and place. Creating or fostering the appropriate conditions should be a key objective of both.

The degradation of trail resources associated with expanding recreation and tourism visitation is a growing management problem in protected areas worldwide. In order to make judicious trail and visitor management decisions, protected area managers need objective and timely information on trail resource conditions. This paper introduces a trail survey method that efficiently characterizes the location and lineal extent of common trail problems. The method was applied to a large sample of trails within Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a high-use protected area in the USA. The Trail Problem-Assessment Method (TPAM) employs a continuous search for multiple indicators of pre-defined tread problems, yielding census data documenting the location, occurrence and extent of each problem. The present application employed 23 different indicators in three categories to gather inventory, resource condition, and design and maintenance data of each surveyed trail. Seventy-two backcountry hiking trails (528 km), or 35% of the Park's total trail length, were surveyed. Soil erosion and wet soil were found to be the two most common impacts on a lineal extent basis. Trails with serious tread problems were well distributed throughout the Park, although trails with wet muddy treads tended to be concentrated in areas where horse use was high. The effectiveness of maintenance features installed to divert water from trail treads was also evaluated. Water bars were found to be more effective than drainage dips. The TPAM was able to provide Park managers with objective and quantitative information for use in trail planning, management and maintenance decisions, and is applicable to other protected areas elsewhere with different environmental and impact characteristics.

In Spain, it is estimated that 60% of wetlands have disappeared in the last 50 years. The present study aimed to describe the relationships between loss of wetlands and land-use change in Azuaga County, Central-western Iberian Peninsula where during the period 1896-1996, 94% of the original wetlands disappeared. Forest, scrub, holm oak dehesas and olive groves have become fragmented or disappeared completely, having been substituted by eucalyptus plantations in areas of low productivity and by dry cultivation of herbaceous crops, mainly cereals, in more productive areas. These substitutions have resulted in a homogeneous, coarse-grained landscape with low diversity and high dominance. The type of land-use has depended on the evolution of demographic processes, with high human immigration rates toward the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, and high emigration rates during the 1960s and 1970s. The mechanization of agriculture and transition from closed to market economy in the second half of the twentieth century also played an essential role in the landscape changes described.

Rakiura Maori (a tribe of indigenous people in New Zealand) continue a centuries-old customary use of Sooty Shearwater (Puffinus griseus, titi, muttonbird) chicks from islands adjacent to Rakiura (Stewart Island). Some muttonbirders pluck chicks by hand, while others have recently changed to a plucking machine. We compared traditional and modern processing methods to see if new technology stands to increase the efficiency, size and cost effectiveness of harvest. On average, chicks were plucked 6 seconds quicker with a machine, which could potentially increase the catch by up to 4%. Innovation by using wax rather than water to remove down left after plucking saved muttonbirders 29–97 minutes per day, potentially allowing up to a 15% increase in the number of chicks harvested. Both wax and plucking machines increased costs, which led to a modest financial gain from using wax, but a net loss from using a plucking machine. Modern technologies have been introduced mainly for convenience and to ease labour in this customary use of wildlife. New technology may erode traditional skills, but does not necessarily pose a risk to the sustainability of a resource. Financial investment in harvest technologies might provide an incentive to increase harvest levels, but could equally provide an incentive to manage for sustainable use. Preservation lobbies are not justified in presuming that new technologies will always threaten wildlife traditionally used by indigenous people.

Wilderness designation continues to be a contentious effort and must be fully justified even in wealthy countries such as the USA. An important consideration in setting priorities for additional designations of Wilderness is to ensure that under-represented ecosystems are protected. The utility of Geographic Information Systems in performing this task is illustrated using data on ecoregions and areas in the National Wilderness Preservation System to determine the relative protection currently afforded to different ecoregions in the continental USA. We find that 23 of the 35 ecoregions have less than 1% of their land area protected as Wilderness, and 7 of the 35 have no land protected as Wilderness whatsoever. While much of the land with little protection is in areas dominated by private land ownership in the mid-west and southeast, a surprisingly large amount of land in the Intermountain states of Nevada and Utah, which is in public ownership, is substantially under-represented in the National Wilderness Preservation System as well. The implications of this analysis for wilderness allocation strategies are detailed. The technique illustrated in this paper is a useful aid in designing protected area strategies in countries throughout the world.

Numerous national parks have been established worldwide to protect nature, but this has not been without social consequences for neighbouring communities. Since the social and economic vitality of adjacent communities is being recognized more and more as indispensable for the success of conservation objectives, the quality of park-community relations has become a critical issue. A four-year investigation into the social impacts engendered by two national parks situated in the Saguenay region of Quebec (Canada) was conducted, according to a social impact assessment method. Several impacts and changes were identified on resource management, on the local economy, on the tourist industry, on involvement and participation of local actors and on the social organization of the neighbouring communities. The significance of these impacts varied according to the community and the actors involved. The results of the present research point to the determining role of the government in general, and of the park management in particular, in the process of local community development. In this regard, recommendations are addressed to local communities to improve their partnership with national parks.

Pocket gophers have long suppressed forest regeneration in clearcuts in western North America, despite the application of intensive and costly, large-scale abatement practices, which also kill non-target wildlife and may increase soil erosion. At four national forests in northern California, gophers (Thomomys bottae and T. monticola) on 50 clearcuts were baited with a 0.5% strychnine concentration on wheat or oat groats, which were presented as loose grains or in 1 × 2 cm paraffin pellets for added durability. The various baits and baiting regimes usually reduced gopher abundance by 50-100% within one month. However, gopher populations recovered too quickly to protect seedlings planted for forest regeneration, especially on plots baited with a mechanical burrow-builder. In some plots where abatement was most successful initially, gopher densities increased to levels exceeding those in control plots by 7-13 months later. As gopher populations recovered following abatement, active burrows first appeared at the plot peripheries and advanced toward the plot centres, suggesting that abated territorial residents were replaced by immigrants dispersing from the surrounding landscape.

Whereas conventional abatement practices can reduce gopher abundance in clearcuts, the small spatial and temporal scales of application encourage reinvasion of vacated ecological space. These population responses defeat the goal of forest management by increasing gopher density in clearcuts; at the same time the conifer seedlings are vulnerable to gopher predation. Predation of conifer seedlings might be reduced by not abating gophers or by using alternative harvest regimes. These alternative strategies would avoid creating the conditions under which gophers contribute to slowing forest regeneration following timber harvests, and they would avoid the widespread and possibly long-term environmental damage caused by applying acute poisons and by using the burrow-builder.

The >150 islands in north-western México are relatively pristine, but may easily be damaged by unregulated human use. Tourists visit many of these islands, but their numbers and impact are unknown. To examine some of the costs and benefits of ecotourism we sent a questionnaire to 42 ecotourism companies that visit islands in north-western México; 29 respondents reported that tourist days on these islands had increased at >7% yr-1, from <15 000 in 1986 to about 47 000 in 1993. Neither government regulation nor cost of trips were reported to be important impediments to tourism growth. In 1993, ecotourist organizations visiting islands reported spending US$3.7 million, none of which went directly to the protection and management of the islands. We provide several management options to increase the conservation benefits of ecotourism and minimize the negative impacts.

There are numerous reasons why land users do not always adopt innovations even though all evidence may suggest that they should. The purpose of this study was to review the literature in the field of extension and technology transfer drawing upon the rural sector primarily in Australia. Australia is now recognized as a world leader in adopting new technology and ideas, particularly those relating to the management of the physical environment but there has been little assessment of the circumstances and constraints surrounding this adoption. The reasons for non-adoption range from complexity of the technology, land user's beliefs and opinions towards the innovation, attitude to risk and conflicting information. For different land-use enterprises and innovations, different constraints will apply and it is argued that these are in three broad categories, characterized by: the land user and the adoption process; the characteristics of, and issues associated with the developers of, the innovation; and the role of extension agents and the transfer process. It is apparent from the changing nature of technology transfer that commercial organizations have assumed a leading role in this field and land users are being recognized as key stakeholders in both the adoption and technology development processes. The study, however, reveals a shortage of data on the effectiveness of corporations and other commercial organizations in the technology transfer and adoption processes.

A clear understanding of human population growth, consumption patterns, and their effects on the environment, particularly amongst our future leaders, is essential for proper allocation of conservation efforts. We report on the results of a written questionnaire assessing the knowledge and attitudes of undergraduate university students majoring in a range of disciplines in the United States of America (USA) and in Costa Rica (CR) regarding population- and environment-related issues. Our results indicated limited knowledge about human population growth and the environment, with USA students and male students more often responding correctly to factual questions on demography and global environmental change than CR students, who nonetheless were generally more pessimistic about environmental quality and the carrying capacity of the planet. USA students, however, more often recognized the link between human population size and environmental quality. Education on population and environmental issues will be improved if: (1) linkages between population size, consumption, and environmental quality are taught; (2) the effects of individual actions on environmental quality are emphasized; and (3) environmental education is tailored to local issues.

The environmental service provided by the great biodiversity of Amazonian forests is one of several factors leading to the conclusion that much greater efforts are warranted to reduce the destruction of these forests. Risks to biodiversity in Amazonian forests include deforestation, logging, fires, fragmentation, depletion of fauna, invasion by exotic species, and climate change. Financial values assigned to biodiversity depend strongly on the purposes of valuation. Utilitarian benefits include the values of presently-marketed and presently-unexploited forest products, and the monetary value of environmental benefits. Non-monetary values of Amazonian forests are also essential components of decision-making on conservation. Measures of ‘willingness to pay’ and ‘willingness to accept’ can be useful as indicators of potential financial flows, but should not be confused with the true values of the forests to society. Valuation for the purpose of setting penalties for destruction of biodiversity is an important legal question in Brazil and must take into consideration additional factors.

Conservation of biodiversity in Brazil includes creation of various types of protected areas. The status of these areas varies greatly, with practice frequently deviating from official requirements. Creating reserves that include human occupants has a variety of pros and cons. Although the effect of humans is not always benign, much larger areas can be brought under protection regimes if human occupants are included. Additional considerations apply to buffer zones around protected areas. The choice and design of reserves depends on the financial costs and biodiversity benefits of different strategies. In Brazil, rapid creation of lightly-protected ‘paper parks’ has been a means of keeping ahead of the advance of barriers to establishment of new conservation units, but emphasis must eventually shift to better protection of existing reserves. Indigenous peoples have the best record of maintaining forest, but negotiation with these peoples is essential in order to ensure maintenance of the large areas of forest they inhabit. The benefits of environmental services provided by the forest must accrue to those who maintain these forests. Development of mechanisms to capture the value of these services will be a key factor affecting the long-term prospects of Amazonian forests. However, many effective measures to discourage deforestation could be taken immediately through government action, including levying and collecting taxes that discourage land speculation, changing land tenure establishment procedures so as not to reward deforestation, revoking remaining incentives, restricting road building and improvement, strengthening requirements for environmental impact statements (RIMAs) for proposed development projects, and creating employment alternatives.

In recent years there has been a proliferation of projects aiming to integrate human development needs with conservation objectives, and to establish mutually beneficial relationships for the management of natural resources between rural communities and the state. This paper presents data from a case study of human-wildlife interactions in villages along the northern boundary of the Selous Game Reserve in south-east Tanzania. Since 1989, this area has been the site of a project working to promote community wildlife management (CWM). Questionnaire survey data were used to examine villagers' conservation attitudes towards wildlife, the Game Reserve, and the activities of the CWM project and state wildlife management authority. Despite local support for the conservation of wildlife, many respondents were either unaware or held negative views of the activities of the wildlife management institutions. Logistic regression analyses show that while access to game meat from the CWM project has had a positive influence on perceptions of wildlife benefits and awareness of the project's activities, it has had no significant effect on local perceptions of the Game Reserve and the activities of the state wildlife management authority. The factors underlying the observed pattern of conservation attitudes were identified as the inequitable distribution of benefits from the CWM project, and the limited nature of community participation in wildlife management. The importance of institutional issues for the future progress of participatory approaches to conservation with development is emphasized.