As wildlife populations are declining, conservationists are under increasing pressure to measure the effectiveness of different management strategies. Conventional conservation measures such as law enforcement and community development projects are typically designed to minimize negative human influences upon a species and its ecosystem. In contrast, we define “extreme” conservation as efforts targeted to deliberately increase positive human influences, including veterinary care and close monitoring of individual animals. Here we compare the impact of both conservation approaches upon the population growth rate of the critically endangered Virunga mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), which increased by 50% since their nadir in 1981, from approximately 250 to nearly 400 gorillas. Using demographic data from 1967–2008, we show an annual decline of 0.7%±0.059% for unhabituated gorillas that received intensive levels of conventional conservation approaches, versus an increase 4.1%±0.088% for habituated gorillas that also received extreme conservation measures. Each group of habituated gorillas is now continuously guarded by a separate team of field staff during daylight hours and receives veterinary treatment for snares, respiratory disease, and other life-threatening conditions. These results suggest that conventional conservation efforts prevented a severe decline of the overall population, but additional extreme measures were needed to achieve positive growth. Demographic stochasticity and socioecological factors had minimal impact on variability in the growth rates. Veterinary interventions could account for up to 40% of the difference in growth rates between habituated versus unhabituated gorillas, with the remaining difference likely arising from greater protection against poachers. Thus, by increasing protection and facilitating veterinary treatment, the daily monitoring of each habituated group contributed to most of the difference in growth rates. Our results argue for wider consideration of extreme measures and offer a startling view of the enormous resources that may be needed to conserve some endangered species.

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Extreme Conservation Leads to Recovery of the Virunga Mountain Gorillas

............................................................................................. ii Dedication........................................................................................... iv Preface................................................................................................ v Acknowledgements................................................................................ xii Table of

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"Living weather" for survival: cultivating local climatic knowledge in New Brunswick, circa 1790-1870

Foreword Preface 1. Biodiversity change Part I. Diagnosing the Biodiversity Change Problem: 2. Biodiversity in the modern world 3. Biodiversity and ecosystem services 4. Biodiversity loss, sustainability and stability 5. Biodiversity externalities and public goods 6. Poverty alleviation and biodiversity change 7. Globalization: trade, aid, and the dispersal of species Part II. The Search for Solutions: 8. Getting the prognosis right 9. Understanding what is lost 10. Managing risk, uncertainty, and irreversibility in biodiversity change 11. Conservation incentives and payments for ecosystems services 12. Paying for International environmental public goods 13. Strengthening the biodiversity-related multilateral agreements 14. Genetic resources and the poor 15. Redirecting biodiversity change Index.

Our Uncommon Heritage: Biodiversity Change, Ecosystem Services, and Human Wellbeing

An ethical defense of modern zoos

Knowing Naŝlhiny (Horse), Understanding the Land: Free-Roaming Horses in the Culture and Ecology of the Brittany Triangle and Nemiah Valley

Interweaving firsthand experiences in the field with premier scientists and environmentalists, Jane Goodall presents a hopeful look at the animals once on the verge of extinction that are now coming back. This book is an illuminating look at how, through the grace of nature and the dedicated work of scientists and environmentalists, we can and are actually saving animal species. Through Goodall's signature impassioned narrative, we read fascinating accounts of how the course of fate has been reversed for these animals. Each chapter illustrates the crucial need to continue saving habitats and the species that live there, as well as to educate new generations to be better stewards than previous generations have been. Goodall's views on the hopeful future of endangered animals and their co-existence with human culture is bolstered by studies and accounts she has uncovered during her ceaseless travels as a heroine fighting on behalf of the well-being of our planet.

Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species are Being Rescued from the Brink

In her wise and elegant new book, Jane Goodall blends her experience in nature with her enthusiasm for botany to give readers a deeper understanding of the world around us. Long before her work with chimpanzees, Goodall's passion for the natural world sprouted in the backyard of her childhood home in England, where she climbed her beech tree and made elderberry wine with her grandmother. The garden her family began then, she continues to enjoy today. SEEDS OF HOPE takes us from England to Goodall's home-away-from-home in Africa, deep inside the Gombe forest, where she and the chimpanzees are enchanted by the fig and plum trees they encounter. She introduces us to botanists around the world, as well as places where hope for plants can be found, such as The Millennium Seed Bank, where one billion seeds are preserved. She shows us the secret world of plants with all their mysteries and potential for healing our bodies as well as Planet Earth. Looking at the world as an adventurer, scientist, and devotee of sustainable foods and gardening-and setting forth simple goals we can all take to protect the plants around us-Jane Goodall delivers an enlightening story of the wonders we can find in our own backyards.

Gail E. Hudson

Papers

Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species are Being Rescued from the Brink

Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants