Sweden, with its small population and its wealth, is in an ideal position to practise sound conservation. Indeed, it was the first European country to enact legislation making provision for national parks. But, as is true of anywhere else in the world, there have been, and still are, conflicts between conservationists and those who exploit natural resources without thought for the future. Professor Kai Curry-Lindahl, an ffPS Vice-President, has been involved with conservation in Sweden for many years as well as being extremely active at an international level. In July 1983, the British Museum (Natural History) invited him to give a public lecture on the progress of conservation in his country and its attendant problems. Here we publish a shortened version of his talk.

The warm event, El Niño, that struck the eastern equatorial Pacific in 1982–83 was the strongest recorded in the last 100 years. Coastal people suffered floods, crop losses and failure of fish catches as the ocean waters grew warmer and the rainfall increased more than tenfold. Wildlife was affected in many different ways. The author has been working as a Naturalist Guide within the Galápagos National Park for the past three and a half years and he is particularly interested in the interactions of seabirds with their environment.

The Namibia Wildlife Trust was set up in 1982, mainly in response to the slaughter by poachers of the elephants and rhinos of the desert in the northern part of the country. The Trust's efforts are meeting with some success but must be sustained if the large mammals of this unique area are to survive.

Over the past 20 years or more fences have been erected around the part of the Kalahari that lies in Botswana without thought about the impact on the wildlife. Over the years the fences have taken a massive toll of animals whose traditional migration routes to water have been sealed off. The authors, who have been working in the Kalahari since 1981, examine the current situation and suggest some of the possible remedies that are so urgently needed.

The Mountain Gorilla Project (MGP) has now been running in the field for over five years. This report covers its activities between November 1982 and February 1984 and also considers what has been achieved so far and what has still to be done. A review is timely for we are approaching a critical point in the evolution of the project. The author has been employed by ffPS as the MGP Field Officer in Rwanda for the past two-and-a-half years.

W National Park is shared by Niger, Upper Volta and Benin, and is recognized as being one of the most important parks in West Africa by virtue of its size—11,320 sq km—and its diversity of habitats and species*. Both its proximity to the rapidly growing capital of Niamey, Niger, and the burgeoning trans-Saraha tourist traffic give it great tourist potential. The park and its wildlife, however, are under constantly increasing pressure from poaching, illegal grazing, uncontrolled bush fires, the possibility of phosphate mining, and the lack of financial and material means to combat these problems. The author is a US Peace Corps biologist who worked in Niger for four years, for part of the time attached to the IUCN/WWF aridlands project. He describes conditions and problems in the Niger sector of W National Park and discusses possible solutions.

White rhino travelled considerable distances after release and took up to two years to settle down. Black rhino also travelled widely but sightings were too infrequent to determine the full extent and duration of these movements. Both species have become established and at least seven white and one black rhino have been born. The populations of both species have been increased by immigration from adjacent populations.