In the 1970s, under Idi Amin's rule, poaching decimated mammal populations in Uganda and, as a result of the drop in browsing and grazing pressure, uniform scrub and woodland are replacing the species-rich grasslands.

January 31, 1982 was a milestone in the long struggle to save Oryx leucoryx from extinction in the wild. On that day ten Arabian oryx, nine of them born and bred in the United States, were released into the open desert in Oman. The release was a triumph for Operation Oryx, launched almost 20 years earlier, in April 1962, by the Fauna Preservation Society, as it then was; in Oman it was also a day of rejoicing for the Harasis tribe, who will once again guard their white oryx in the Jidda al Harasis, and for Sultan Qaboos bin Said, whose generous support and cooperation made the return possible.

In California’s Death Valley burros, the introduced wild donkeys, are driving out the native desert bighorn sheep, as well as destroying the vegetation. A sentimental public has so far ensured their protection and prevented the Park Service solving the problem. Now the Service is proposing to remove the burros completely by giving away those they can trap and shooting the rest.

Overfishing, wasteful fishing and destructive fishing take a large toll of the fish and all other life in the sea: more than half the important commercial fish species have been overfished; every year several million tonnes offish and other animals are caught incidentally and discarded, and modern equipment such as bottom trawls and indestructible nylon nets which, lost overboard, become permanent fish traps, spread devastation. Coral reef exploitation, oil exploration, land erosion, dams on major rivers all affect the seas, while much of the agricultural pesticides and the industrial toxic wastes end up there too. Fish provide much-needed animal protein for humans. As more than half the marine productivity is within 200 miles of the shore, which is where 98 per cent of the world’s fish catches are made, the need for good management is clearly urgent.

Until recently Liberia has lagged far behind the rest of Africa in conservation, with no national parks, no hunting regulations, and widespread forest destruction. But the creation in 1976 of a Forest Development Authority with a dynamic staff offers real hope for the future. The author, widely known for his conservation work, especially in Zaire, spent four months on a WWF/IUCN survey in 1978–79; he describes what he found and the proposals he made to the Liberian authorities.

In 1979 Japanese fishing vessels began using monofilament mesh driftnets to catch squid in international waters north-west of the Hawaiian Islands, between 35° and 45° N. This new fishery threatens the survival of leatherback turtles Dermochelys coriacea in their North Pacific feeding grounds and migration routes. It is only recently that the existence of leatherbacks in this remote oceanic area has been discovered and made known.

Nigel Bonner has documented sightings of humpbacks Megaptera novaeangliae off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula which seem to indicate some recovery of stocks (Oryx 16, 3: 231–232). It may therefore be worth placing on record the following sightings of this species made from Argentine Islands for 1970/72, when I was stationed at the British Antarctic Survey base.

When the author visited Nigeria in 1981 to look at forests on the lower Niger, there had been no reports for 15 years of the red-bellied guenon Cercopithecus erythrogaster, and only a single specimen of the olive colobus Procolobus verus was known from the country. He found surviving populations of both monkeys, but each is threatened by widespread, intensive hunting, and by habitat destruction. If effective measures are not taken to protect the guenon and its rainforest habitat, this species could become extinct, since it occurs only in southwestern Nigeria.

The Serengeti National Park in Tanzania is famous for its huge herds of migrating wildebeest, zebras and other ungulates. But these herds spend much of the year in neighbouring reserves where their survival depends on preserving the right conditions. The authors made a study of two of these reserves with disturbing results. The Maswa Game Reserve they found was seriously threatened by invading (illegal) settlement with a fast-growing population cultivating land and felling trees; in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area they report that the Maasai have taken to poaching, both for subsistence meat and for trophies to sell – skins, ivory and rhino horn. In both places the guards are so poorly equipped they can do little to stop poaching.

With 44,000 sq km of coral reef surrounding its many islands and an everincreasing population that depends heavily on fish for protein food, the damage being done to the Philippine reefs is of serious concern. Silting of the water (the result of erosion following forest clearing), modern fishing methods and the collecting mania all contribute to this. A long list of suitable areas for marine reserves has been compiled, and thanks to education programmes some communities are taking conservation measures for themselves.