Marine and coastal areas are classified in this paper according to attributes of the physical environment and by the faunal assemblages involved. Oceanic and coastal-margin realms are defined and mapped with the marginal seas and archipelagos named according to their connections to oceanic realms. There are seven types of ocean realms and thirteen types of coastal-margin realms. Latitudinal symmetry is present between hemispheres and from ocean basin to ocean basin. The defining characteristics for these realms are the seasonal variations in ocean surface currents and the companion seasonal variations in the main wind-currents of the atmosphere.

Forty faunal provinces are indicated on the six maps of the oceanic and coastal realms. As sufficient database for their inclusion is not yet available, coastal marine and coastal terrestrial floristics and vegetation are not considered in this classification.

While the boundaries between faunal provinces do not always match boundaries between ocean and coastal realms, the foundation is laid for a binominal designation system with the coastal or oceanic realm as ‘genus’ and the faunal province as the ‘epithet’—e.g. Western Subtropical—Cortezian. With this system, global intercomparisons become manageable. For example, the Western Subtropical-Cortezian can be directly contrasted with the Western Subtropical—Louisianian and the Western Subtropical—Southwestern Australian.

As marine conservation activities intensify, planners and managers of protected areas are finding themselves with few guidelines or tools that are specific to the marine realm. Consequently the principles, criteria, and practices, of terrestrial protected areas tend to be transferred to the seas, where they are often inappropriate. In contrast to the situations with at all comparable sites on land, there is a sad shortage of published material on the application of ecological principles to the design and management of marine protected areas.

Using the example of coral reefs, guidelines are presented here in the hope that they will elicit comment and stimulate the publication of similar guidelines for different marine environments.

Coral-reef protected-area boundaries must fulfil two requirements: they must include appropriate coral-reef, confluent and neighbouring habitats, and a sufficient area of each. The first requirement defines the type, and the second the quantity, of habitats to be included in a protected area. Studies in the Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean, indicate that, there, the core zone of a protected coral-reef area should encompass 300 ha of diverse reef habitats if preservation of biotic diversity is the principal objective. The buffer-zone size needed will vary according to activities planned within the area, the extent of neighbouring coastal habitats, and the proximity of up-current or otherwise ‘linked’ sources of potential contamination.

Systematic efforts to conserve Viet Nam's natural resources began (in the North) in the early 1960s with the establishment of a 25,000-hectares' area, Cue Phuong National Park, south-west of Hanoi. Since the end of the Second Indochina war, Viet Nam's Ministry of Forestry has undertaken a comprehensive programme to restore forests that were destroyed or damaged in the fighting, to inventory forests and their resources, and to develop forest management for the economy and recreation of the Vietnamese people. The Ministry of Forestry's Institute of Forest Inventory and Planning is the agency carrying out these tasks; it employs about 5,000 people, including well-trained scientists.

Before 1963, there were no regulations regarding hunting in Viet Nam. Now the Ministry of Forestry has a Department of Protection which attempts to regulate hunting of game, such as deer, Wild Pigs, Tigers, and Leopards. Many species of birds and mammals are now totally protected. These include two primates, the Indochina Gibbon and the Douc Langur, as well as three species of wild cattle, the Kouprey, Banteng, and Gaur. The Kouprey and the Javan Rhinoceros are classified as endangered species because only a few individuals are known to be still alive, at least in Viet Nam. Elephants are trapped and trained for commercial purposes and for capture of wild Elephants, while the wild herds are increasing owing to the war's end and the prevention of killing.

Most of the features that are commonly attributed to typical tropical rain-forests, such as a preponderance of woody vegetation and species with leaves in the mesophyll size-class, tall slender trees with ‘flying buttress’ and unusually thin bark, multilayering of vegetation with abundance of epiphytes and stranglers, evergreenness, strong tendency to change in species composition in time and space, and high diversity of dominance, are plentifully displayed by the forests of the Silent Valley in southwestern India. A relatively high species-richness, remarkably thin bark of trees, and high total tree-basal area, indicate that the valley embodies a virgin forest and that conditions for growth are very favourable. Because of the terrain, heterogeneity in habitats is well marked.

The proposed construction of a dam and large flooding reservoir threatens to bring about several undesirable alterations in the environment of the Silent Valley rain- and riparian forests, and the disturbances that would follow such construction and flooding would be highly detrimental to the diversity of the forests and to the complexity of their structure. Hence a plea is made for the setting aside forthwith of a proposed major ‘Silent Valley Biosphere Reserve’, which could safeguard a unique part of the world's genetical heritage and one of its most interesting complexes of natural ecosystems.

This paper, which has been nearly a decade in gestation, describes the contribution that industrial development makes to the conservation of wild plants in Britain. It challenges the priorities of the British conservation movement in concentrating its efforts on rare species and habitats, on the creation of Nature reserves, and on the maintenance of rare species as rare species. A more positive approach is now advocated, stressing the need to prevent common species from becoming rare, the creation of new habitats, and the propagation and reintroduction of uncommon species.

Whilst species conservation is relatively easy to justify and comprehend, habitat conservation is considerably more difficult. ‘Industrial habitats’ may be defined as those derived from any industrial process (including transport routes). Such habitats are characterized by a complex association and interaction of slope, aspect, drainage, nutrient status, and the chemical and physical characteristics of the skeletal soils—all of which are apt to change markedly over very short distances. In addition they are generally open, lack stability, do not receive frequent applications of fertilizer and/or herbicide, and are often inaccessible or well protected.

This paper considers alternative approaches to the evaluation of Nature conservation resources as part of the overall process of establishing Nature conservation priorities. The techniques available for evaluation are seen to differ in their ideological base and methodology, and in the relative importance which they attach to physical and ecological features. This lack of consistency means that existing techniques only represent a partial basis for determining conservation priorities. Furthermore, the assumptions on which evaluation techniques are based tend not to be stated explicitly and often appear not to have been substantiated. These inconsistencies are due in part to ambiguity concerning the objectives of conservation, in part to the lack of research into the relationship between human demands and the features of Nature conservation resources, and in part to uncertainty as to the position of evaluation in the conservation priority-setting process.

A model of this process for setting conservation priorities is presented. It delimits ecological evaluation as an objective, value-free element in the priority-setting process—where ecological evaluation is seen to provide information which aids decision-makers in the more value-laden socio-economic elements of conservation priority-setting. The model implies that the objective and subjective elements in existing evaluation techniques are not sufficiently explicit to ensure consistency in decision-making.

There is no doubt whatever that changes in the development strategies in the agricultural sector will be essential if mankind is to eliminate world hunger—at least if human populations continue to grow as currently envisaged. In this review an attempt has been made to outline some of the criteria on which new approaches should be based. It should also be realized that the changes which it will be necessary to adopt for an alternative form of development will not be easy, because any such changes are bound to affect some segments of the population adversely, and one can be assured that vested interests will oppose them strongly. Thus, it is somewhat naive to assume that even an obviously improved policy will be automatically adopted. The proponents of the change will have to convince the people at large that such changes will be beneficial and necessary. It will not be an easy task, but certainly worth while to accomplish.

In order for land, water, and various inputs, to be used most efficiently for maximizing agricultural production on a sustainable basis, it will be essential to have an effective organizational infrastructure as well as a well-trained cadre of people. While bringing new land under cultivation is a viable alternative to solving the food problem in some countries, in many others far more effective use than at present must be made of existing land, especially addressing the problem of soil-loss. Failure to introduce terracing is a good example of failure to use existing technology, while on the other hand inappropriate technologies are liable to be introduced. South-south transfer of technology can present as many problems as north-south transfer of technology, as the attempt to transfer the processing of cashew-nuts from India to Tanzania has demonstrated.