Timber operators building access roads open up the forest in Western Ghana and make it easy for farmer-settlers to come in. The roads also enable them to get their produce to the towns to sell, and thus the farms become profitable and expand, and the wildlife disappears. At the same time the slaughter of wildlife in the forest reserves (its only refuge) is severe and continual, largely because meat is scarce. The author pleads for some forest reserves to be made game reserves as well so as to protect the forest wildlife.

The Sierra Leone Government has plans for wildlife protection and conservation. But meanwhile the hunting slaughter and habitat destruction go on. One result of killing off leopards, civet cats and pythons was a plague of the giant cane rat which is doing immense damage to crops.

Oil pollution of the sea used to be caused mainly by deliberate dumping of waste oil. Today this problem could be almost mastered by the ‘load on top’ system, but the chief cause remains accidents to tankers such as the Torrey Canyon. In this report on the Rome conference on the subject, held in October 1968, Lieutenant Colonel Boyle, former FPS secretary and a member of the British Advisory Committee on Oil Pollution of the Sea who represented the FPS, describes the working of the ‘load on top’ system and the discussions on the new problem. Lord Jellicoe, Chairman of the British Committee, presided at the conference.

Is it always necessary to cull large populations of wild animals such as elephants and hippos, when they appear to be destroying their habitat? In ORYX May 1969, C. A. R. Savory argued the case for doing so in Rhodesia, and the question of whether to crop elephants in parks such as the Tsavo and the Kruger has caused heated controversy. In this article the authors, drawing on their experience of the Luangwa Valley in Zambia, where a cropping scheme was started in 1966, suggest that what appears to be destruction there may not necessarily be so, and that the real vegetation killer is fire in the dry season. R. M. Lawton is an ecologist with the Land Resources Division of the British Directorate of Overseas Surveys, and Mrs Gough is a skilled observer of animal behaviour with considerable experience in Zambia.

The world's turtles are decreasing at a rate which, if unchecked, could mean their extinction before the end of the century. In March this year a group of marine turtle specialists from all over the world met at IUCN headquarters in Switzerland to discuss what action could and should be taken. Professor Tom Harrisson, who is a specialist on the turtles of the South China Sea and Vice Chairman of the SSC Turtle Group, attended the meeting and drafted the first version of the agreed statement, the opening paragraphs of which are quoted at the beginning of this article, and the recommendations for action – ‘the now attack’ – at the end.

In the spring of 1967 Philip Wayre and his wife took 15 pairs of the rare Swinhoe's pheasant, bred at the Ornamental Pheasant Trust, in Norfolk, of which he is Hon. Director, to Taiwan (Formosa), where this pheasant is endemic, to supplement the sadly reduced wild stock and also provide a captive breeding nucleus for further releases. This article describes the return of the pheasants, and also the wildlife situation in Taiwan, particularly the dangerous demands of the tourist trade for stuffed animals and birds, and for goods decorated with the gorgeous butterflies of Taiwan. These butterflies are being collected in millions to decorate plastic trays and tablecloths.

The new African conservation convention, drawn up by IUCN and signed by the African heads of state in September 1968, is now in force. Kai Curry-Lindahl, who has been involved in its rather chequered history, tells here the story of how two conventions, differing in scope, came to be drawn up and how the matter has been resolved.

Papua and New Guinea have the makings of a sizeable skin industry based on the two native crocodiles. But the industry today is in danger of collapse as a result of overhunting in the accessible crocodile areas. The best hope for conserving the crocodile is to build up the numbers to enable the industry to thrive on a sustained yield basis, so that the people will accept crocodile conservation as sensible, practicable and profitable. Dr. Bustard has made an extensive survey and study of the problem in the Territory, and here describes the situation and the recommendations he has made to the Government.