Understanding the nature and role of experiential knowledge for environmental conservation is a necessary step towards understanding if it should be used and how it might be applied with other types of knowledge in an evidence-based approach. This paper describes the nature of experiential and expert knowledge. It then discusses the role of experiential knowledge as a complement to scientific knowledge and explains the interplay between experiential knowledge with conservation research and practice using a simple conceptual model of how individuals learn. There are five main conclusions: (1) because experiential knowledge will always play a role in decision-making, enhancing ability to learn from experiences (including research) will have a significant influence on the effectiveness of conservation outcomes; (2) while experiential knowledge is qualitatively very different from quantitative information, both are important and complementary; (3) some experiential knowledge can be expressed quantitatively, but experiential knowledge can be difficult to isolate as single facts or propositions and qualitative methods will therefore often be required to elicit experiential knowledge; (4) because each person's expertise is unique, when using experiential knowledge the extent of a person's experience and its relevance to a particular problem need to be specified; and (5) as with any form of knowledge, there are limitations to that derived from personal experience. Synthesis and communication of research is therefore essential to help prevent erroneous thinking and, where possible, experiential knowledge should be used in conjunction with other types of information to guide conservation actions.

Conservation covenants (or easements) are flexible but legally enforceable documents attached to a land title restricting the use of that land, providing for the protection of important conservation values, while allowing the landholder to retain possession. Given the attractiveness of covenants to those who seek to expand national and regional nature conservation initiatives, it is important to understand landholder motivations for participation in programmes that covenant for nature conservation. This paper examines the likely influences on landholder decision making when it comes to conservation initiatives. A review of literature highlights key motivations and determinants, such as landholder demographics and the nature of the land tenure in question, their knowledge and awareness of the programme, financial circumstances, and perceptions of financial and other risks and benefits of the programme itself, including incentives and compensation. Underpinning, or mediating, the decision-making processes will be landholder philosophies and values, and five constructs are determined from the review, namely economic dependence on property, private property rights, confidence in perpetual covenant mechanisms, nature conservation equity and nature conservation ethic. Using these constructs, a series of explicit hypotheses is drawn, applicable to agencies dealing with conservation covenants and testable through an adaptive management approach. A conceptual model is presented to show hypothesized relationships between motivational factors and the five constructs that will lead to the uptake of covenants by landholders, providing direction for policy makers and managers of incentive programmes for nature conservation on private lands.

Little is known about the impacts of intensive shellfish farming on intertidal ecosystems. To assess such impacts, several indices of ecosystem structure and select geochemical characteristics were contrasted among three intertidal regions, which represented a gradient of shellfish farming activities, namely (1) no active aquaculture, (2) actively farmed for three years and (3) actively farmed for five years. All three intertidal regions were located in Baynes Sound (British Columbia, Canada) and were geographically similar. Among the three beaches, species richness, community composition, bivalve abundance, biomass, distribution, and composition and surficial sediment per cent organic matter (carbon) and silt were compared. The intertidal regions that had been used for farming for three and five years had lower species richness, different bivalve composition, abundance and distributions, and a foreshore community dominated by bivalves, as compared to the intertidal region where no active farming occurred. Beaches that were actively farmed also had greater accumulations of organic matter and silt. Simplification of the intertidal benthic community, coupled with accumulations of organic matter and increased siltation, may have altered the ecology of the foreshore region used for intense shellfish harvesting. To access the foreshore for shellfish farming in a sustainable manner, studies are needed to determine the scale to which intensive use of the foreshore for shellfish purposes alone is feasible without undue harm to the environment.

The effects of low-level aircraft over-flights on behaviour of harlequin ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) breeding in central Labrador were quantified during 2000–2002. The Canadian Department of National Defence supports a low-level training programme in the 130 000 km2 Military Training Area of Labrador involving military jets. The Institute for Environmental Monitoring and Research (IEMR) undertakes scientific research into environmental impacts of low-level military jet over-flights. A suite of 17 behavioural categories of paired male and female harlequin ducks was modelled, and a canonical variable representing alert behaviour, inactivity on the water and decreased inactivity out of water in response to over-flights represented 73.1% of the variance in the data cluster and provided marked separation of disturbed and undisturbed groups. Behavioural responses of harlequin ducks to military jets were 23 times stronger than their responses to floatplanes, helicopters and military cargo planes, and the significant interaction of aircraft type and noise indicated that noise may be the primary stressor affecting behaviour. A quadratic response of the canonical variable to noise generated from aircraft during standardized 30-minute observation periods was defined. The multivariate analyses were more robust because they indicated covariance in behavioural categories associated with disturbance that was not originally detected in univariate analyses, suggesting the importance of integrating behaviours other than overt responses. The significant effects of military jet over-flights on harlequin duck behaviour emphasize the need to evaluate potential population consequences of aircraft disturbance.

Yasuni National Park and Biosphere Reserve in Ecuador's Amazon basin is home to the Huaorani and an area of high conservation value. As a result of oil development in the early 1990s, a road was constructed in the northern region of the Park. Three Huaorani communities have since been established in proximity to the road, two of them when the road was built, ten years prior to this study, and the third in a previously uninhabited area. This allowed for a natural experiment comparing harvest compositions across communities of different ages at one point in time. Harvest profiles suggest that the spider monkey Ateles belzebuth is facing local depletion near the two old communities and the howler monkey Alouatta seniculus may also be depleted near one of the old communities. That the two oldest communities still harvested a relatively high number of other vulnerable species is attributed to their use of the road to increase forest access. The spider monkey appears to be the first species to become depleted in persistently hunted areas.

Recreational fisheries are the dominant or sole user of many coastal and most inland fish stocks in industrialized societies. Recreational angling can negatively affect fish populations, but appropriate management approaches to address these impacts are often lacking. Overall, privately-governed European recreational fisheries systems offer suitable conditions to reconcile resource use with resource conservation because access restriction is possible, decision-making structures are simple and management scales are small. This increases the hope that the race to fish may be less pronounced than in open-access commercial fisheries. To achieve harmony between use and conservation values, a thorough understanding of the human dimension is paramount, yet approaches including this are underrepresented in contemporary recreational fisheries science and management. Based on theoretical considerations, literature review and personal experiences, this paper presents key human obstacles to the reconciliation of recreational fishery resource use and resource conservation, with emphasis on private fishing rights regimes of central Europe. Nine obstacles are identified: (1) lack of social priority; (2) lack of integrated approaches; (3) lack of cooperative institutional linkages; (4) lack of systems thinking; (5) lack of research and monitoring; (6) lack of shared values and dominance of stereotyped perceptions; (7) lack of consideration for regional fish-angler dynamics; (8) lack of objective communication of scientific findings; and (9) lack of critical self-reflection among individual anglers. Potential solutions to overcome the identified constraints briefly discussed include: (1) evaluation of the socioeconomic benefits of angling; (2) rehabilitation of ecosystem structure and function on larger scales; (3) facilitation of structured cooperation between stakeholders and management units; (4) application of complex systems approach; (5) increased funding for long-term monitoring; (6) fostering of common values of different stake-holders; (7) active adaptive management of angling effort on regional scales; (8) intensified communication of research findings; and (9) conviction of anglers to meet personal targets by more restrictive regulations. Increasing research and management efforts related to the social component of recreational fisheries will improve reconciliation of resource use and resource conservation in traditional recreational fisheries management. It is a matter of societal values whether it is judged necessary to do so on a broader scale.

The extent and condition of forest ecosystems in Armenia have decreased drastically since the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). This decline is not only a consequence of the recent history of the area, but also the result of decades of forest policies, management and forest-use practices. To reverse the negative trends, it is important for stakeholders, scientists, resource managers and policy makers (in Armenia and abroad) to understand the influential factors in the decline, yet such information is scarce, highly fragmented, written in Armenian or Russian, and inaccessible to the international community. This paper aims to contribute to the knowledge base of the international community by presenting and contrasting the most important issues and processes that have affected forest cover in Armenia during the USSR (1920–1991) and independence periods (1991–to date). For each period, the legal framework, the forest inventory practices, forest use, management and conservation practices, the forestry education, and the perception of the forests by forest communities and society at large are presented and discussed. Except for the social perception of the forests, the most relevant aspects of these issues have scarcely changed from one period to the next. There is a need to address the most pressing problems and improve the current conditions of the forests and the forestry sector in Armenia.

The coral reefs of Papua New Guinea are among the most species diverse in the world, support an important artisanal fishery, but lack an effective national conservation programme. Increased commercialization, population growth, promotion of fisheries development projects, and the live reef food fish trade are expected to increase demand for the country's reef fish. This paper examines how socioeconomic factors affect the condition of the artisanal multi-species coral reef fishery in six sites in Papua New Guinea. Catch characteristics such as diversity, trophic level and body size by landing site were examined along a fishing pressure gradient. Both exogenous factors such as markets and endogenous factors such as fishing pressure were related to the condition of fish catch. In general, the trophic level and lengths of fish captured in Papua New Guinea were relatively high, but were reduced on reefs with high fishing effort near fish markets. Fisheries showed signs of depletion above c. 25 fishing trips per km2 per day and the proximity of markets was a better indicator of overfishing than human population size. A cross-scale approach to fisheries management is required in Papua New Guinea to coordinate decentralized local management, limit the intrusion of extractive enterprises, and develop policies that seek to minimize exogenous pressures on marine resources.