The proposal for a national park in Jebel Akhdar, in Oman, described in Oryx, November 1974, has been carried a stage further by a scientific survey made in April 1975 with the fullest support from the Oman Government. Originally the park was designed to protect the Arabian tahr Hemitragus jayakari, but so few survive in the area that the authors have recommended that, while the park plan should go forward, thus giving the survivors full protection, another reserve should be made the major conservation area for tahr.

Maned wolf, giant armadillo, giant otter, giant anteater, and marsh and pampas deer are among the endangered species to be found in the Parque Nacional das Emas, the National Park of the Rheas, in Brazil. But the park is in danger of losing much of its value because boundaries were wrongly drawn and vital areas omitted. The author urges the need for international funds to help Brazil create in Das Emas a well planned, well guarded and well equipped park that will be outstanding in Latin America.

Trade in the highly endangered orang utan still goes on despite total protection in its entire range – Indonesia and East Malaysia. The authors spent three years studying orang utans in North Sumatra, trying to get the protection law enforced, and running a rehabilitation station for confiscated animals. The aim was to return the animals to the wild, but the station's real importance was that it made the confiscation of illegally held animals possible, and was thus some deterrent to hunters and traders. Much more damaging than the orang utan trade, however, is the forest destruction that is going on, and it is vital to ensure that large areas of lowland primary forest are preserved from the huge timberlogging operations that are fast destroying the orang utan's habitat.

In the course of his WWF survey for rhinos in Sumatra, the author also made a study of orang-utans. He came to the conclusion that the total number in Sumatra is not more than 3500–4500, despite higher figures that have been circulated, and that probably half of these – the animals living in forests outside the nature reserves – are severely threatened. Not only are they hunted and poached, but their habitat is being rapidly destroyed by big timber companies with concessions for clear-felling-15½ million cubic metres of timber were exported in 1973.

Between August 1974 and July 1975 the authors spent eleven months in Zaire, six of them in an isolated tract of rain forest in the Equateur region studying the ecology and behaviour of bonobos, or pygmy chimpanzees. They urge the need to establish a reserve to protect bonobos, mainly because of threats to their habitat, and suggest an area in the Lomako Forest that is also rich in other wildlife.

Calamian deer, which are found only in the Philippine Islands, have been so reduced in numbers over the last thirty years that unless hunting can be controlled, they are doomed to extinction. This is Ian Grimwood's conclusion after his 1975 survey which was aided by an Oryx 100% Fund grant. The deer have no enemy but man. There was no hunting during the Japanese occupation, and at the end of the Japanese war numbers were quite high. Since then increased hunting pressure has led to an accelerating decline, with more and more people hunting fewer and fewer deer. Today Ian Grimwood suggests the maximum number cannot be over 900 animals, and is probably much less, and extinction is certain unless action is taken. The following are extracts from the report:

National parks are no luxury today, but an essential tool in every country, on every continent, and in the sea if man is to understand his environment and avert destruction. The author, who is Senior Adviser to the UN Environmental Programme, explains why the selection of the right areas is important, and what the criteria should be to avoid past mistakes.

Only about 300 mountain gorillas survive in the Virunga Volcanoes of Zaire and Rwanda. In the last Oryx Dr John MacKinnon suggested that a transfer of animals from the Kahuzi-Biega National Park to introduce new blood to the Virunga population should be considered. The author of this article, who spent two years intheVirungaswith Dian Fossey studying the gorillas, points out first that we do not yet know whether the animals are, in fact, suffering from inbreeding, and suggests why they may not be so; and second that there are special difficulties about the transfer that make death of the released animals and disruption of the population the most likely results at present. Dr MacKinnon, who has read the article, agrees that there are many dangers in translocation and that it should not be done without careful consideration and expert supervision.

Four new national parks are being created in Nepal, three in the Himalayas, including Sagarmatha (Everest), to protect the mountain ecosystems with their wildlife and a fourth, the Royal Chitwan National Park (already gazetted) to protect the rich wildlife of the Terai. This park includes a now thriving population of great Indian rhino as well as tiger and gaur, and may be extended to include areas where both marsh crocodile and the highly endangered gharial are found. This ambitious new conservation programme was described by John Blower in Oryx, October 1973. Melvin Bolton is FAO Ecologist with the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Project in Nepal.