Reflections on: "Indigenous Rights and Interests in WildCountry in Australia" by Ghazala Shahabuddin

Ghazala is co-editor with Mahesh Rangarajan, of Making Conservation Work, Permanent Black, 2007, reviewed in this volume. She is commenting here after reading the interview with Anthony Esposito (National Manager of the Indigenous Conservation Program, The Wilderness Society) recorded by Heather Goodall, January 2007

Science in the wilderness: the predicament of scientific research in India’s wildlife reserves

Ecology and allied scientific disciplines aim to understand patterns and processes pertaining to wild species, their ecosystems and their relationships with humans. India’s wildlife reserves are important ‘living laboratories’ for these disciplines. Today, there is a disturbing trend across India where scientists are increasingly denied access to wildlife reserves for scientific research or are seriously impeded, without scope for redress. Although official wildlife management rhetoric emphasizes the need for scientific research, in reality, it is viewed as undesirable and permitted, if at all, as a concession, subject to the discretion of individual forest officials. With no enabling legislative or policy framework to promote and apply science in our wildlife reserves, we are concerned that the future of many scientific disciplines in India is being jeopardized. Here, we provide an analysis of this issue and outline steps needed to promote scientific research in our natural areas

The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015

Habitat and nectar resource utilisation by butterflies found in Siruvattukadu Kombei, Palni Hills, Western Ghats

Volume: 94Start Page: 423End Page: 42

Preliminary observations on the role of coffee plantations as avifaunal refuges in the Palni Hills of the Western Ghats

Volume: 94Start Page: 10End Page: 2

Impact of Unequal Distribution of Canal Water on Farm Produce: A Case Study Matli Taluka

This study seeks to investigate to identify the impact of shortage of water on the tail, end areas of the irrigation network. For the research study 320 respondents were randomly selected and nearly 107 from each category that is large medium and small farmer’s respondent. The sample further stratified respondents from all three reaches that is head middle and tail of main semi-irrigation channels and on the water courses level as well to capture the authentic picture of the water availability on each level of irrigation system. The observation of the study and data collected revealed that farmers on the head reaches benefit more from the supply of water from crop production compare to middle and tail reaches and middle reaches have more opportunity of having better irrigation water compare to the tail reaches however, the more sufferers are the tail reach farmers who get less water from crop production. Consequently, this situation cause’s absolute poverty to the farmers on the tail reaches of the irrigation water supply channels

COVID-19 Highlights the Need for More Effective Wildlife Trade Legislation

Over the past three decades, most new human pathogens with substantial impacts on human health or economies have originated in wildlife [1,2]. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is among the latest of these zoonotic diseases and is now a pandemic that has resulted in more than a million fatalities globally as of 1 October 2020 (https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019). Direct contact between people and animal species due to the wildlife trade and increased human–livestock–wildlife interactions through rapid fragmentation of wildlife habitat are two major factors that contribute to the spread of zoonotic diseases [3,4]. Although localized quarantines and lockdowns around the world appear to be having some minor positive effects on the environment, these short-term successes should not be glorified in view of the profound negative environmental, social, and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2020). We call for urgent action to regulate the trade of wildlife, expand protection for native ecosystems, and reduce consumer demand for wildlife parts and products to lower the risk and severity of future zoonotic diseasesPeer reviewe