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  The Last Stand of the Orangutan - State of emergency: illegal logging, fire and palm oil in Indonesia's national parks »

  The Last Stand of the Orangutan was prepared by a Rapid Response Team at UNEP/GRID-Arendal and UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre as a broad collaborative effort, involving contributors from the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Forestry, Indonesia, and partners of the Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP).

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Parks or arks: where to conserve threatened mammals? »

  Growing deterministic and stochastic threats to many wild populations of large vertebrates have focused attention on the conservation significance of captive breeding and subsequent reintroduction. However, work on both gorillas and black rhinos questions this shift in emphasis. In these species, field-based conservation can be effective if properly supported and, although this is not cheap, per capita costs may still be considerably lower than for ex situ propagation in captivity. Here we attempt to broaden the scope of this debate by contrasting the breeding success and costs of in situ and captive programmes for a range of threatened mammals.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Assessing the status of poorly known species: Lessons from partridges and pheasants of Southeast Asia »

  There is an urgent need to evaluate the status of groups of species for conservation purposes. A species' status is indicated by both its distribution and abundance, and the rate at which these components are changing. This information is scarce for many tropical forest species. We produced four measures of status based on locality and habitat data for 25 partridges and pheasants of Southeast Asia.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Declining Ruff Philomachus pugnax populations: a response to global warming? »

  Ruff breeding populations have declined widely and in all habitats across temperate Eurasia. Of an estimated population of 2.2-2.8 million birds, 98% are now confined to habitats in the Arctic tundra. 

  The emerging picture is that the population has shifted northwards and eastwards and has retreated from the wet grassland habitats formerly occupied along the southern edges of its range. It is suggested that the causes are probably of a global nature and may be linked with climate change. It is unclear whether the total population has declined or only shifted north and east. More co-ordinated and systematic monitoring of breeding and wintering populations will be necessary before a full understanding of these changes can be reached.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  First indications of a sharp population decline in the globally threatened Spoon-billed Sandpiper Eurynorhuchus pygmeus »

  Spoon-billed Sandpiper Eurynorhynchus pygmeus is classed as globally Vulnerable, based on the only available population estimate, made in 1977, of 2,000-2,800 pairs. Surveys for breeding Spoon-billed Sandpipers were carried out in summer 2000 on the Anadyr estuary coast, the Chukotka autonomous region, Russia. Although six new breeding sites were found, only 16-17 breeding males/pairs were recorded on the northern coast of the Anadyr estuary and five males/pairs on the southern coast and more southerly lagoons. These numbers were much lower than expected, and the species was not recorded in several apparently suitable areas.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers