Monte Pascoal National Park contains an important remnant of Brazil's threatened Atlantic forest. It may not survive for much longer, however, because the park's fate is in the hands of two government agencies with conflicting objectives—one concerned with conserving species in the parks and the other concerned with the rights of indigenous people to those resources. Although the Pataxo Indians lived in these forests in the past without destroying their resource base, modern pressures have altered their ability to do so. If nothing is done, the forest as a home for threatened plants and animals and as a source of resources for people, will be lost.

The Souss Valley in Morocco still has remnants of forest dominated by the argan tree, which is endemic to the Atlantic coast of north-west Africa. The tree is valued for its edible oil and its timber and the argan forest ecosystem is rich in species. The forest has been exploited sustainably by man tor thousands of years, but modern developments have destroyed or damaged much of it, especiallyin the lowlands. The author, who worked in the region for three years, is alarmed at the rapidly increasing destruction. He makes a plea for effective protection of the remaining argan torest and for a plan for its sustainable exploitation.

The Chiew Larn Dam, Thailand's thirteenth, was completed in 1986 and the resulting flooding will destroy 165 sq km of the country's largest remaining area of lowland evergreen rain forest. For the first time ever in Thailand a rescue operation was carried out to try to save some of the wildlife, which includes threatened and endangered species, stranded on islands as the waters rose. In 18 months 1364 animals of 116 species were captured, but 44 died soon after. The survivors were released into protected areas nearby. The operation can be judged successful in some ways, but there were many shortcomings. The author, who was Field Director of the rescue operation, argues that even if these could be remedied in future similar projects, a wildlife rescue operation cannot compensate in any way for the loss of important wildlife habitat.

North Yemen banned the import of rhinoceros horn in 1982. There is still a demand for the horn to make dagger handles, however, and to meet this some is still smuggled into the country. This illegal trade threatens the world's last populations of rhinoceros and in late 1987 the author went to North Yemen to study the problem and to devlop a conservation strategy.

In 1986 the FFPS contributed £750 from its Oryx 100% Fund towards a study of riparian forest in Somalia. Only small fragments remain. The local and national importance of these forests demands that urgent action is taken to conserve them, as the author explains.

The authors visited the Azores in September 1986 to investigate the status of the archipelago's natural forests and the rare endemic trees they contain. They carried out intensive investigation only on the island of Pico, although they also worked on Terceira and Sao Miguel. These three are the only islands on which moderately large areas of forest are believed to remain.

The Peruvian diving petrel Pelecanoides garnotii is endemic to the Peruvian or Humboldt Current. Descriptions of past colonies suggest that the species was once abundant in Peru, but harvesting guano on its nesting islands and killing the birds for their meat caused a drastic decline in the population. Fishing activities and direct exploitation threaten the only two remaining breeding colonies in Peru. There are an estimated 4000 breeding individuals left, but unless they are protected the species will continue to decline.