Ambangulu Forest is one of the few remaining tracts of natural forest between 800 and 1200 m in the West Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. It may be the biologically richest area in the region but it is threatened by illegal felling of timber trees, wind damage, grazing and browsing livestock, and collection of fuel-wood and building poles. A proposed project aims to protect the forest and benefit local people at the same time.

The National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development (NCWCD) was established in 1986 to oversee all wildlife conservation programmes in Saudi Arabia. One of the first species-specific programmes, started in the same year, was a houbara bustard Chlamydotis undulata macqueenii captive-breeding project at the National Wildlife Research Center. With the production in 1992 of a selfsustaining captive houbara flock and the provision of an annual surplus of houbara chicks, attention has shifted to the release of captive-bred houbara into protected areas. Critical review of the houbara programme in 1993 emphasized the need for field studies, public-awareness programmes and international collaboration in addition to captive-rearing and release.

The grey gentle lemur Hapalemur griseus is currently divided into three subspecies. Of these, very little is known about the western gentle lemur H. g. occidentalis and survey work to assess its distribution and numbers is urgently needed. The sighting of this species approximately 200 km to the south and 200 km to the north of the previously recorded populations further highlights this need. The Tsiombikibo Forest, where Hapalemur was sighted, may harbour further surprises and should be investigated more extensively in order to assess habitat condition and the species present.

New Caledonia, a French territory in the south-west Pacific has a very high number of endemic taxa. The endemic fauna include a monotypic genus of parakeets – Eunymphicus. One subspecies, Eunymphicus cornutus uvaeensis, which is endemic to the island of Ouvéa in the Loyalty Islands, is seriously threatened by degradation of its natural habitat, natural predators and capture for sale to collectors. There are now only 200–500 individuals left in the wild. The parakeet is the emblem of Ouv–a and local people, together with research scientists, have formed a society with the aims of studying the parakeet in its natural environment, making the general public aware of its conservation requirements, combating smuggling, increasing its population by breeding it in captivity and, if possible, introducing it on to a neighbouring island.