Habitat loss and anthropogenic climate change are primary threats to global biological diversity and ecosystem stability. International efforts to halt the effects of climate change and to slow the loss of biodiversity are now focused on the tropical biome. Specifically, and in recognition of the substantial contribution to climate warming made by deforestation in developing countries, the UN-REDD+ programme has been established to provide incentives for stopping tropical deforestation. This programme also places emphasis on rewarding measures for the conservation of biodiversity. However, the effective integration of carbon storage and biodiversity conservation goals in countries participating in the REDD+ programme will require greater research effort. In particular, in order to maximize our chances of preserving biological diversity, it will be essential to consider diversity at a population level, as well as at a species and ecosystem level. Phylogeographic studies should be an integral part of this population-level research effort as they can be used to document regional biological diversity, provide baseline genetic data to monitor changes in genetic diversity, allow the identification of evolutionary refugia, and provide evolutionary context for current patterns of diversity. The REDD+ initiative has the potential to provide an internationally well-supported framework for reducing forest habitat loss and protecting tropical diversity, and may, therefore, provide the impetus needed for increased biodiversity research effort. In conjunction with the recent development of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), phylogeographic research may now be considered more explicitly in the development of national environmental policies and in planning for biodiversity conservation.

One major concern regarding the biodiversity impacts of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) is “leakage” of threats from REDD+ to non-REDD+ forests, particularly if those forests storing the highest amounts of carbon – and thus prioritized under REDD+ – do not coincide with those most important for biodiversity conservation. This concern applies globally, and has been previously discussed in Indonesia, where the highest-carbon forests on peat are known to support lower species diversity and concentrations of threatened species than lowland mineral-soil forests. To help refine management of this risk, we discuss previously overlooked considerations regarding biodiversity threat leakage, suggest three strategies for managing leakage risk, and outline important questions to address with respect to these. We emphasize (1) the need to recognize intrinsic differences in threat displacement vulnerability among forests not currently protected/proposed to be protected under REDD+; and (2) that not pursuing REDD+ in high-carbon forests in an attempt to avoid leakage will not necessarily reduce this risk in low-carbon, non-REDD+ forests, due to the often high intrinsic vulnerability of these forests. Further to previous recommendations, suggested strategies for reducing risk of threat displacement include (1) focusing “traditional” conservation resources on the most vulnerable high-biodiversity forests not scheduled for protection under REDD+; (2) reducing costs, simplifying procedures and encouraging community-based approaches for pursuing REDD+ in low-carbon, high-biodiversity forests; and (3) developing more creative measures, especially fiscal and financial incentives, for protecting vulnerable low-carbon forests. Inter-disciplinary research is urgently needed to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of these strategies to successfully manage biodiversity leakage risk from pursuing REDD+ in high-carbon forests and, thus, for ensuring REDD+ achieves its potential for generating biodiversity conservation gains.

Illegal hunting poses a considerable threat to the wildlife of Serengeti National Park and its affiliated protected areas. Techniques for successful mitigation of this threat are heavily debated. Bottom-up community-based initiatives aim to curb poaching by linking local communities with wildlife conservation. Top-down anti-poaching enforcement of protected areas seeks to maintain wildlife populations through fines and prison sentences given to arrested poachers. Poverty stands as the major driver of illegal hunting as households vie for income and sustenance. Livelihoods of illegal hunters have been augmented considerably through revenue generated from bushmeat sales. Illegal hunters use bushmeat both for supplementing household protein and for economic gain. Obtaining bushmeat carries risks in the form of personal injury, fines, and/or prison sentences, if arrested. This paper compares these costs and benefits through a summary of the monetary benefits, bodily injuries, fines, and prison sentences that individuals endured over their poaching careers. Data were collected from 104 individuals, all of whom voluntarily admitted active or recent involvement in illegal hunting activities.

Bushmeat consumption and trade are major problems for wildlife conservation in East Africa. To evaluate recognized drivers of bushmeat consumption, we used structured interviews of 435 households in 11 villages within an ethnically diverse division in rural western Tanzania; the study included both indigenous people and an immigrant population that has moved into the area over the last 40 years. We found that the number of wild animal carcasses reported to be entering villages was greater in villages situated nearer to nationally protected areas. In the indigenous sample, bushmeat consumption was more common in richer than in poorer households, challenging ideas that increasing the availability of alternative protein would necessarily reduce consumption of bushmeat. In the immigrant sample, we found the opposite pattern. We recommend that outreach programs be targeted at both hunters and consumers living near protected area boundaries; that careful evaluations be made of whether wealthy or poor are eating bushmeat; and that protein supplementation be considered more cautiously in solving the problem of bushmeat demand. Our findings highlight complexities of implementing practical solutions to bushmeat consumption in Africa.

Conserving wildlife corridors is increasingly important for maintaining ecological and genetic connectivity in times of unprecedented habitat fragmentation. Documenting connectivity loss, assessing root causes, and exploring restoration options are therefore priority conservation goals. A 2009 nationwide assessment in Tanzania documented 31 major remaining corridors, the majority of which were described as threatened. The corridor between the Udzungwa Mountains and the Selous Game Reserve in south-central Tanzania, a major link between western and southern wildlife communities, especially for the African elephant Loxodonta africana, provides an illuminating case study. A preliminary assessment in 2005 found that connectivity was barely persisting via two remaining routes. Here we present assessments of these two corridors conducted from 2007–2010, using a combination of dung surveys, habitat mapping and questionnaires. We found that both corridor routes have become closed over the last five years. Increased farming and livestock keeping, associated with both local immigration and population growth, were the main reasons for corridor blockage. However, continued attempts by elephants to cross by both routes suggest that connectivity can be restored. This entails a process of harmonizing differing land owners and uses towards a common goal. We provide recommendations for restoring lost connectivity and discuss the prospects for preventing further loss of corridors across the country.

The restoration of anthropogenically disturbed sites contributes to biodiversity conservation, but pre-recovery land-use history affects the restoration and recovery time of impacted forest sites. The objective of the present study was to assess the effects of different land-use histories (low-impact logging - LL, high-impact logging – HL, and slash-and-burn - SB) on quantitative (diversity values) and qualitative (floristic composition) measures of forest recovery. This research was conducted in Atlantic rainforest areas of Bahia State, Brazil, which had remained undisturbed for 50 to 60 years after human disturbance. Surprisingly, the area subjected to the most aggressive usage (SB) showed intermediate richness and diversity values, but had a floristic composition dominated by pioneer species similar to early-successional forests. Families typical of preserved areas (Sapotaceae and Myrtaceae) were more diverse in LL and HL areas. Our results indicate both quantitative and qualitative recovery in areas subjected to LL, which tended to recover without intervention. Areas subjected to HL showed intermediate qualitative recovery and the lowest quantitative recovery, and may therefore require enrichment to accelerate recovery. Despite good quantitative (species richness and diversity) recovery, the slash-and-burn areas had a predominance of early successional species, which indicates that enrichment actions are essential for the recovery of these forest areas. Knowledge of how land-use history influences forest restoration processes can guide management actions and thereby contribute to the allocation of resources where they are really needed.

Determining the efficacy of efforts to conserve natural systems requires that environmental baseline data exist; without such baseline data, it is impossible to determine if management actions are working. This study presents water quality baseline data (nutrients) for the coastal waters of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. As the island's economy shifts more towards tourism, these data can be used to verify that conservation efforts to preserve the ecology of the coastal waters are succeeding. Surface waters were sampled at 40 sites, selected using a stratified random sampling design, on 7 occasions between July 2007 and March 2008. Nutrient concentrations were similar to what has been observed in other systems in Puerto Rico, except for in the near coastal lagoons which had significantly higher observed concentrations. Variations in nutrients between lagoons are driven by connectivity to the ocean and lagoon depth. Because of these relationships, and because there are no obvious major sources of point or non-point sources of pollution on the island that would affect only the lagoons, it is hypothesized that these high nutrient levels are the natural status of the system, rather than evidence of eutrophication.

Free-ranging dogs (Canis familiaris) are a major conservation issue in the tropics and adopt many ecological roles, alternatively functioning as predators, prey, or competitors of wildlife in diverse environments. Dogs are also potential reservoirs of disease that can be transmitted to both wildlife and people. Therefore a range of management interventions have been suggested to control dog populations. In order to monitor interventions to decrease dog populations, estimates of their population size are important and such methods need to be time- and cost-effective. We describe here a potential method that uses natural marks on dogs along with counts of non-marked individuals in a mark-resight framework to estimate the abundance of free-ranging dogs in a suburban area in India. Using the logit-normal mixed effects estimator to incorporate the effects of individual resighting heterogeneity, we found a total (N_j) of 680.64 ± 34.06 (95% CI = 617.22 – 751.35) dogs in the study area, with an overall mean resighting probability of 0.53 ± 0.03 (95% CI = 0.47 – 0.58). This corresponds to a density estimate of 57 dogs km⁻² (CI = 51 – 63). Given that certain assumptions are met, this method may be useful to estimate abundance of dogs where other kinds of marks may be unavailable or impractical. This method may be applied to other species of feral animals as well, where some proportion of a population has distinct natural marks.