This paper deals with a Programme of Ecological Stations for Brazil that is being carried out by the Special Environmental Agency (SEMA), of the Ministry of the Interior, Brasilia. The main objective of the Programme, which is linked with the Second Plan for National Development of Brazil (National Council for the Development of Science and Technology), is to protect natural environments that are representative of the main natural ecosystems, and to provide the Ecological Stations with such a substructure as will permit Universities and research organizations to pursue ecological studies in connection with areas nearby that are inhabited by Man.

Bermuda's caves have proven to be extremely valuable from the scientific, economic, and recreational, viewpoints. Significant studies in geology, palaeontology, and biology, have been conducted in these caves, which are also an important asset as tourist attractions in a country whose economy is almost wholly dependent upon tourism. Caves and other karst landforms contribute much to the scenic beauty of Bermuda. However, a number of these caves have been destroyed or severely damaged by Man. The four primary threats to Bermuda's caves have been (1) filling and quarrying activities, (2) water pollution, (3) dumping and littering, and (4) vandalism.

On the basis of published information and the Authors' own experience in the field, a schema of land deterioration in 5 major sub-areas of Central Chile is proposed. The 5 sub-areas are: 1. Coastal Marine terraces; 2. Coastal ranges; 3. Andean foothills; 4. Central valley and river valleys; and 5. Norte Chico.

The central role of ecology in park planning and management is now so well recognized that the establishment of park programmes without ecological advice seems unthinkable. Yet attempts to link ecological principles and planning principles are still fraught with difficulty. Communications between interdisciplinary teams are complex.

The Authors of this paper illustrate how the principles of ecology and the practices of park management are interconnected and interdependent. The need for resource inventories as a foundation of park management is explored and emphasized as essential, as is the need for constant monitoring to ensure that conservation goals are attained. Underlying the article are basic convictions that dynamic ecosystems require dynamic management, and that management in the future will be required increasingly to attain specific conservation objectives.

An ecodisaster is here characterized as ‘any major and widespread misfortune to, or seriously detrimental change operating through, Man's or Nature's habitat—whether or not it is engendered by Man himself, and whether or not it affects him directly’.

From this wide perspective but leaving aside such ‘old favourites’ as world famine and nuclear holocaust, and not yet dealing with population swarming and biotic invasion, are selected the following half-dozen items as being particularly pertinent: (1) Build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide; (2) Disappearance of more and more of the life-support system; (3) Water shortage and salt build-up with continuing irrigation; (4) Loss of genetic diversity; (5) Increasing complexity of human existence and health-hazards; and (6) The Beirut syndrome of human slaughter.

The Great Central Lake story from British Columbia provides an interesting microcosm which touches on a variety of Man's activities. Other aspects which have not been discussed but were touched upon during the course of the experiment include logging, mining, hydroelectric power, recreational activities, and drinking-water. These ‘resources’ are also part of Man's use of the Great Central Lake system.

Investigations into the relationship between the number of fish species in small coral communities and the area of those communities have suggested ties between the theories of terrestrial island biogeography and the functioning of the closely-spaced archipelagos of ‘underwater islands’ that make up the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. The value of these theories to the marine park planner and resource manager may be considerable where quantitative information on minimum reserve size and the degree of isolation and exchange are needed in the decision-making process. There also follow a number of biogeographic principles which can form a set of practices for the establishment and management of marine reserves wherever the marine ecosystem is subdivided into collections of isolated or semiisolated parts.

Land erosion in wilderness, conservation, and recreational, areas may be accelerated by certain non-agricultural land management practices. Examples from the Natal Drakensberg are used to demonstrate how certain types of land modification—such as burning, the construction of unpaved access roads, and the creation of paths and tracks—may result in rapid acceleration of erosion rates.

There exists no current inventory of how much of the United States is occupied by natural vegetation, nor how much area is covered by particular plant communities. In this study, the potential existing vegetation-cover of the United States was determined by using a computer algorithm that was developed to subtract extant landuse data from the potential natural vegetation. This was done on a county-by-county basis for the 48 conterminous States.