Reserve selection algorithms (RSAs) are a powerful tool for marine conservation, but need biological realistic constraints. A common constraint is that the RSA aims to include the same percentage area of each habitat in the reserve network. The example of Caribbean reefs is used to argue that there is significant additional scope to set specific areal targets for each habitat type, as in many terrestrial case studies. Ten Caribbean habitats are weighted by data on their biodiversity, functional value to ecosystem processes and ecosystem services. These weightings vary depending on the criteria used, and are particularly distinct for ecosystem services. Furthermore, a percentage goal for a habitat can be achieved in multiple ways by including different combinations of habitat patches from across a seascape. RSAs may treat these combinations equally, but some habitat patches are more ‘valuable’ than others because, for example, high abundances of grazers make the benthic community resilient. Incorporating some of these considerations into RSAs is relatively easy, while others are more difficult. However, establishing how to integrate patterns of biodiversity, and ecological processes, functions, goods and services across seascapes into RSAs offers opportunities to improve the design of networks of reserves.

The Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) in south-east Asia offers a new opportunity to address marine conservation in this global biodiversity hotspot. This commentary offers an analysis of the concept of networked marine protected areas (MPAs) which form the cornerstone of this agenda. Attention is drawn to the value of the scientific rationale for implementing such a network, along with the ability for component MPAs to be self-financing and managed in accordance with local environmental conditions and the needs of resident communities. It is concluded that the current model of MPA networks as represented in the CTI needs to build upon existing MPA practices, recognize the varied socioeconomic, political and environmental characteristics of the region and adopt an adaptive approach to MPA implementation if it is to offer genuine prospects for conservation.

As global fishing effort increasingly expands into deeper water, concerns exist over the ability of deep-sea fishes to sustain fisheries. There is however little quantitative evidence to support these concerns for the deep-sea cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyes: sharks, rays and chimaeras). This paper compiled available life history data for this group to analyse their ability to rebound from population declines relative to continental shelf and pelagic species. Deep-sea cartilaginous fishes have rates of population increase that are on average less than half those of shelf and pelagic species, and include the lowest levels observed to date. Population doubling times indicate that once a stock has been depleted, it will take decades, and potentially centuries, before it will recover. Furthermore, population recovery rates decrease with increasing depth, suggesting species that occur deepest are those most vulnerable to fishing. These results provide the first assessment of the productivity of deep-sea chondrichthyans, highlighting that precautionary management of developing deep-sea fisheries is essential if stocks and biodiversity are to be maintained.

Shark cage diving is both popular and controversial, with proponents citing educational value and non-extractive use of natural resources and opponents raising concerns about public safety and ecological impacts. Logbook data collected 2004–2008 from two Oahu (Hawaii) shark cage diving operations were analysed to determine whether such voluntary records provide useful insights into shark ecology or ecotourism impacts. Operators correctly identified common shark species and documented gross seasonal cycles and long-term trends in abundance of Galapagos (Carcharhinus galapagensis), sandbar (Carcharhinus plumbeus) and tiger sharks (Galeorcerdo cuvier). Annual cycles in shark abundance may indicate seasonal migrations, whereas long-term trends suggest gradual exclusion of smaller sandbar sharks from cage diving sites. Numerically dominant (> 98%) Galapagos and sandbar sharks are rarely implicated in attacks on humans. Negligible impact on public safety is supported by other factors such as: (1) remoteness of the sites, (2) conditioning stimuli that are specific to the tour operations and different from inshore recreational stimuli and (3) no increase in shark attacks on the north coast of Oahu since cage diving started. Tracking studies are required to validate logbook data and to determine whether sharks associated with offshore cage diving travel into inshore areas used for in-water recreation.

Illegal fishing has detrimental environmental and social impacts, but these effects are difficult to mitigate without reliable estimates of fisher non-compliance. Methods used by fisheries managers to estimate illegal fishing often require indirect estimation of poaching using biological, economic or sociological indicators. This study presents a unique application of the randomized response technique (RRT) for direct estimation of non-compliance in fisheries to the Northern California recreational red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) fishery. An anonymous paper-based compliance and sociodemographic survey of recreational fishers in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties estimated 29% non-compliance with the daily take limit, 23% with the minimum size limit, 19% with licensing laws and 15% with the annual take limit. RRT results also indicated how different sociodemographic characteristics related to non-compliance. Visitors had higher non-compliance rates than local fishers for all regulations except daily take limits, which an estimated 72% of locals violated versus 18% of visitors. High fisher awareness of regulations, fisher age, income and fishing experience did not appear to influence illegal take. RRT is a powerful tool which can aid conservation managers in prioritizing action.

Paying landowners to conserve forests is a promising new strategy to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services. However to succeed with this approach, programme managers need reliable monitoring data to make informed payment decisions. This includes withholding payment from landowners who do not meet conservation objectives. The monitoring method used for the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund compared aerial photographs and conducted field sampling to identify forest changes. The comparison of aerial photographs showed that 161 hectares of forest were degraded in the central core zone of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico between 2001 and 2003. As a result, payment was withheld from one of 13 landowners. Analysis of high resolution (0.6 m) digital aerial photographs did not detect finer scale changes, despite obtaining an average pixel resolution 1000 times greater than Landsat satellite imagery. This suggests that current payment for ecosystem services programmes are underestimating environmental change and overpaying non-compliant participants. In addition, selecting a decision rule to enforce payment conditionality raised new questions about how much ecosystem degradation should be permitted before withholding payment. Sound decisions about withholding payment cannot be developed until the marginal value of ecosystem services is better understood. Until then, payment thresholds can be based on specific policy objectives.

Establishing effective networks of protected areas (PAs) is one of the major goals of conservation strategies worldwide. However, the success of PAs in promoting biodiversity conservation depends on their integration to local and regional contexts, reducing and mitigating human impacts originating from buffer zones. Community perceptions affect interactions between residents and PAs, and thereby conservation effectiveness. Research at Tocantins state (northern Brazilian Cerrado), aimed to analyse local community perceptions of four PAs, discussing how different factors may influence these. Perceptions were assessed through standardized interviews applied to PA employees and 275 local inhabitants. There was modest community participation in PA establishment and management. Residents were aware of the PAs’ existence, but were unfamiliar with their goals. Length of residency and occupation of inhabitants influenced their PA perceptions, shaping different people-park relations in each of the four studied PAs. Involvement of local residents in PA planning and management represents a central strategy to strengthen local support for PAs over the long term. In those areas that still have settlements inside their boundaries, community relocation should follow a careful participatory process to avoid significant changes in local perceptions and attitudes towards these PAs, crucial for conserving Brazilian biodiversity.

Flagship species are among key marketing tools used by conservation organizations to motivate public support, but are often selected in an ad hoc, rather than systematic, manner. Furthermore, it is unclear whether selected flagship species do motivate public support. This paper describes a multi-method exploratory study, carried out in Switzerland, which aimed to determine the selection criteria for flagship species and measure whether a species selected according to these criteria was able to motivate support. Fourteen representatives of international, regional and local conservation organizations were interviewed and the selection criteria for their flagship species were identified. A charismatic species (the great spotted woodpecker) that meets these criteria and an apparently less charismatic species (the clover stem weevil) were selected as treatments in a quantitative experiment with 900 respondents. Using conjoint analysis, it was found that both charismatic and uncharismatic species have the ability to positively influence public preferences for habitat variables that encourage biodiversity in urban landscapes. These results may be used by conservation organizations to assist in the selection of flagship species, and in particular for flagship species that are intended to perform a specific conservation function.

The transnational nature of biodiversity provides impetus for transboundary protected areas, however support for these also stems from expectations of political, social or economic benefits. The sociopolitical context of southern Africa makes conservation initiatives incorporating economic development particularly appealing, and supporters of transboundary conservation advance visions of tourism growth in this regard; however, this assertion has not been objectively assessed. The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, straddling South Africa and Botswana, is Africa's oldest formally recognized transfrontier park and widely viewed as the prototype for regional transboundary conservation. This paper examines visitation data combined with results from a visitor survey to indicate the tourism performance of the Park. Visitor numbers to the Park have not grown since its opening, but average length of stay and total visitor days have increased. However, it appears that this increase is primarily due to growth in bed numbers; the survey indicates that the Park's new features are only modestly used, and fewer than 10% of guests visit the adjacent country. Potential barriers to further growth include road conditions, Park size and homogeneity, and a lack of innovative tourism strategies. The need to expand socioeconomic monitoring of transboundary conservation areas in order to ensure their viability is reaffirmed.

The exploitation of tropical forest resources is a key driver of the current biodiversity crisis, and it is pivotal to understand human attitudes toward conservation and resource harvesting. This paper investigates effects of interactions, perceptions of protected areas (PAs) and sociodemographic variables on conservation attitudes, and the correlates of illegal resource extraction among 660 households from 33 villages bordering eight PAs on Sulawesi (Indonesia). Mixed-effect multiple regression analyses showed that the most important predictors of the support for PAs included the degree of involvement in management, presence/absence of PA-human conflict, perceived sustainability of forest resources and length of residency in Sulawesi. Notably, active participation in community management by transmigrants and the reconciliation of land-rights conflicts for natives may promote favourable conservation attitudes. Ordination and correlation analyses also revealed that the extent of illegal resource harvesting activities, such as hunting and logging, were significantly influenced by a negative conservation attitude and past conflict with PA establishment. Garnering support for PAs through conservation education and resolving land-rights disputes could potentially alleviate illegal resource extraction. The disparity in resource extraction patterns among the villages across all PAs confirms the importance of adopting site-specific conservation strategies that may make PAs across the biologically unique yet critically threatened Indonesian Archipelago more effective.