The discovery in Alaska of oilfields that promise to be among the richest in the world has raised some complex problems for conservationists. Alaska has a rich and impressive wildlife and habitats that are extremely vulnerable; in summer, when the surface soil thaws out on top of the permanently frozen layers below, one caterpillar tractor can make scars that may lead to disastrous erosion and take years to heal. And how are migrating caribou to get over the unburied parts of a four-foot diameter pipeline that runs for hundreds of miles across their traditional routes. BP, conscious of their responsibility for the wildlife and the habitat, asked Peter Scott to go to Alaska and report on the situation and what could be done to minimise the impact of the oil developments on the wildlife. The following account is drawn in part from his report and in part from his article published in the house magazine BP Shield.

In 1968 the Queensland Government gave five species of turtle full protection along the State’s entire 3200-mile-long coast and the whole of the Great Barrier Reef. In this article Dr Bustard tells the history of turtle protection in Queensland and describes the two turtle population studies he has been running since 1964 which, with other studies, led to the protection order.

In Zambia's main wildlife areas, such as the Luangwa valley and the Kafue national park, the black rhinoceros populations are now stable and in some places even increasing—a striking reversal of the pre-war situation. Provided effective control can be maintained by the Department of Game and Fisheries, the author, who is a member of the department, suggests that there is no reason why they should not continue to thrive.

The author's experience of the damage done by elephants to farms on the edge of a forest reserve in Western Ghana emphasises the point made by Dr. Kai Curry-Lindahl in his recent report to the Ghana government that human settlement should not be allowed close to forest reserves. But where such settlement exists there seems to be no alternative, Mrs Jeffrey suggests, to keeping elephant numbers down by culling.

Primitive breeds of sheep and goats, such as the Ronaldsay sheep of Orkney, could be in danger of disappearing with the present rapid decline in pastoral farming. The authors, both members of the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources in Edinburgh University, point out that, quite apart from their historical and cultural interest, these breeds have an important part to play in modern livestock breeding, which needs a constant infusion of new genes from unimproved breeds to get the benefits of hybrid vigour. Moreover these primitive breeds are able to use the poor land and live in the harsh environment which no modern hybrid sheep can stand.

The author argues that Rhodesia's wildlife is in serious danger owing to poor or inadequate management in the national parks and reserves. He traces the stages leading up to the biological collapse of a habitat, which he says has already happened with the Tuli Circle National Land, and suggests that knowledge gained from game ranching and a new method of domestic stock management on privately owned lands has pointed the way for the future. Mr Savory is a consultant ecologist and his views are controversial, but the FPS believes that they merit serious consideration and should be heard.

The idea of national parks and reserves in the sea has developed slowly, but the increasing popularity of underwater swimming, fishing and coral collecting makes it urgently necessary to protect marine life. Like their counterparts on land, marine parks are usually a great tourist attraction – Kenya has recently created two – and a careful balance has to be achieved, with some areas reserved for tourists and others as sanctuaries where also scientific studies can be made.

In 1966, on a small rocky uninhabited island in the Bahamas, the author discovered an abundant population of the Bahaman hutia, a nocturnal rodent the size of a rabbit, which had been reported extinct. In three visits to the islands he has studied the hutias, now strictly protected by the Bahaman government, and is also breeding them in captivity both for study and as a safety precaution – one catastrophe such as an exceptional hurricane could wipe out the whole population. The author is Assistant Professor of Zoology at Rhode Island University.

In the summer of 1969 the author returned to British Honduras, on a Churchill Fellowship, to follow up his previous studies of the manatee Trichecus manatus manatus and two crocodiles Crocodylus acutus and C. moreleti, all ‘Red Book’ species (see ORYX, May 1968). He found a good breeding population of the manatee, but the plight of both crocodiles he describes as desperate.

A 70-acre granite island in the Seychelles with a remarkable bird population, Cousin Island was bought last year for a wildlife reserve by the ICBP (International Council for Bird Preservation) and a warden installed. Tony Beamish, who has made an excellent film of the island's wildlife, describes some of the changes.

Since 1964 the author, who is Game Warden of Sabah (formerly British North Borneo) has been running a state-supported orang utan rehabilitation project in the Sepilok Forest Reserve. Most are confiscated animals, having been kept illegally, often as pets, and he describes some of the difficulties in getting them to become independent again and able to live in the forest. Some have even been too well treated in captivity, living luxuriously and treated like humans.

In the short space of twelve months Pakistan has laid wide-ranging plans for conserving her wildlife, hitherto completely neglected. On the recommendation of two World Wildlife Fund expeditions, led by Guy Mountfort, an international WWF trustee, two national parks and several reserves are being created which should give Pakistan a last chance to save the tiger, the snow leopard and several other seriously threatened mammals and birds.

Faced with the problem of having to capture large numbers of game animals on difficult terrain and in a short time, the author, who is Senior Capture Officer of the Natal Parks Board in South Africa, hit on a remarkably simple and highly successful method. He found that large animals like antelopes will not attempt to go through or past plastic material, and by making a cheap and simple plastic ‘curtain’ he could drive them with a helicopter into waiting lorries. This way he captured 3500 animals in four months.