There is widespread concern in Britain at the Ministry of Agriculture's decision to eliminate all badgers in sets where TB has been proved. Such sets are presently only known in a few small areas in the West Country – see Oryx, October 1975, page 114. The problem concerns bovine TB, which in Britain in the 1930s was estimated to cause at least 2500 human deaths a year (in addition to those caused by human TB), but which has now been almost eliminated with the pasteurisation of milk and the near elimination of the disease in cows by a ruthless slaughter policy. In this article the author explains why this drastic step is considered necessary and why many conservationists have regretfully agreed to support it.

In Sarawak a comparatively new development is that orang-utans are being hunted for food, often with great cruelty. The Government is aware of the threat to the population, and special reserves are being considered. Lord Medway points out that only a change in local sentiment will save the orang-utans even in sanctuaries – they already have full legal protection – and suggests an appeal must be made to people to return to traditional ways.

Zaïre is one of the foremost African countries in thefieldof wildlife conservation, with large areas of wild country still almost untouched, a magnificent range of wildlife, large well managed national parks, and the will and intention to conserve and extend these, as President Mobutu Sese Seko has made clear. This year conservationists from all over the world will be able to see a little of how this vast country is conserving its wildlife when they meet there for the IUCN General Assembly. In this article the former Director General of Zaïre's Institut National pour la Conservation de la Nature, who has worked there as a biologist since 1948, surveys the main wildlife areas. A second article, in the next Oryx, will describe the status of the major mammals.

In the 1920s elephants roamed nearly three-quarters of Uganda; by 1960 the area open to them was less than one-fifth. The survivors concentrated in national parks and reserves where they were protected, and where they were soon destroying the habitat. So two thousand were shot. But numbers remained high – until 1973. Counts in 1974 showed a dramatic reduction, and rotting carcases pointed to poaching as the cause. The destruction continued in 1975, and the authors believe that the outlook for Uganda's elephants is grim.

In 1971 FPS proposed a world conference on breeding endangered species in captivity, and the first conference was held under the joint auspices of FPS and the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust at Jersey Zoo in 1972 (Oryx XI:5, May 1972). This proved highly successful and in response to the worldwide demand for a repeat a second conference was held in July 1976, at the London Zoo, under the joint auspices of FPS and the Zoological Society of London, which this year celebrated its 150th anniversary. In this account Dr Paul Leyhausen, of the Max Planck Institute, who is Chairman of the IUCN Cat Group, and took part in the meetings, sums up their content and importance.

In May 1974 Ghana created its first high forest national park. This is a forest reserve in the Bia tributaries area of the Western Region, comprising 118 square miles of some of the highest forest in West Africa, including primary unlogged forest, with an annual rainfall of 57 inches spread over ten to eleven months. The area was chosen partly for the large numbers of elephants and monkeys. The possibility of a forest national park in this region has been under consideration for at least five years; success was achieved after lengthy negotiations under the keen direction of the Chief Game and Wildlife Officer, Dr E. O. A. Asibey.

After a preliminary survey in 1974 the author suggests that the outlook for the radiated tortoise in southern Madagascar is not entirely gloomy, thanks to traditional taboos on eating its flesh, improved government controls on exports, and import restrictions in other countries. Its future depends on the survival of some natural habitat; at the same time, he suggests, modern agricultural developments may be indirectly beneficial.