Taxonomic notes: Preliminary genetic evidence suggests that there may be at least two species of African Elephant, namely the Savannah Elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) (Roca et al. 2001, 2005). A third species, the West African Elephant, has also been postulated. The IUCN SSC African Elephant Specialist Group currently accepts the single species proposa...

This paper is a submission from IUCN, PROFOR, and the World Bank in follow up to discussions held at the third meeting of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) on the relationship between sustainable forest management (SFM) and ecosystem approaches (EsA) as applied to forests. It is also a response to a decision at the 6th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity...

School of Biological & Biomedical Sciences, Durham University, Mountjoy Site, Durham DH1 3LE, UK, Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, Devon EX1 3PB, UK, UNEP-WCMC, 219 Huntington Road, Cambridge, UK, Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, BirdLife International, Wellbrook Court, Girton, Cambridge CB3 0NA...

Madagascar ranks as one of the world’s top extinction hotspots because of its high endemism and high rate of habitat degradation. Global climate phenomena such as El Niño Southern Oscillations may have confounding impacts on the island’s threatened biota but these effects are less well known. We performed a demographic study of Propithecus edwardsi, a lemur inhabiting the eastern rainforest of ...

Recent increases in human disturbance pose significant threats to migratory species using collective movement strategies. Key threats to migrants may differ depending on behavioural traits (e.g. collective navigation), taxonomy and the environmental system (i.e. freshwater, marine or terrestrial) associated with migration. We quantitatively assess how collective navigation, taxonomic membership...

Nature conservation work has come a long way in just over a century. In the 19th century, species were grouped into useful and harmful ones. Protection, which was beginning to be enshrined in laws and international treaties, was only extended to the useful species. Nuisances such as lions and bears were unflinchingly earmarked for destruction. Since the foundation of the International Union for...

Threats faced by mammalian species can be grouped into one of a handful of categories, such as habitat loss, unsustainable hunting and persecution. Insofar as they face common threats, diverse species may benefit from the same conservation intervention, thereby offering efficiencies in conservation action. We explore this proposition for primates and felids by examining coarse scale overlaps in...

A clear understanding of population structure is essential for assessing conservation status and implementing management strategies. A small, non-migratory population of humpback whales in the Arabian Sea is classified as "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, an assessment constrained by a lack of data, including limited understanding of its relationship to other populations....

Detailed large-scale information on mammal distribution has often been lacking, hindering conservation efforts. We used the information from the 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as a baseline for developing habitat suitability models for 5027 out of 5330 known terrestrial mammal species, based on their habitat relationships. We focused on the following environmental variables: land cove...