The next FPS African tour, planned for January/February 1970, will break new ground, taking in some little-visited reserves in Uganda, notably the beautiful Kidepo Valley National Park in the north, and if possible the newly declared Awash National Park in Ethiopia. This article describes a preliminary tour made by the Hon Secretary and the Editor in February this year to prospect for the tour.

The last ten years have seen immense advances in the conservation field in the United States. Thanks to the hard spadework of the conservation bodies, the general attitude towards wildlife has changed from ignorant and unregarding exploitation to demands for wise use on a sustained yield basis; people's interest in and knowledge about conservation has made possible a long and varied list of legislation. More than any other one person the man responsible for this is Stewart Udall, for the past eight years Secretary of the Interior with charge of all conservation matters. On his retirement in January this year Mr Udall kindly accepted our invitation to sum up this remarkable ‘new look’ in the USA.

Last year the FPS together with the Council for Nature asked the Mammal Society to investigate the status of the otter in Britain in view of the widespread belief that numbers had declined seriously, especially in the south. This interim report from the Mammal Society, published here in full, confirms these fears, suggests causes, and what action should be taken.

In 1968 the Queensland Government gave five species of turtle full protection along the State’s entire 3200-mile-long coast and the whole of the Great Barrier Reef. In this article Dr Bustard tells the history of turtle protection in Queensland and describes the two turtle population studies he has been running since 1964 which, with other studies, led to the protection order.

The author argues that Rhodesia's wildlife is in serious danger owing to poor or inadequate management in the national parks and reserves. He traces the stages leading up to the biological collapse of a habitat, which he says has already happened with the Tuli Circle National Land, and suggests that knowledge gained from game ranching and a new method of domestic stock management on privately owned lands has pointed the way for the future. Mr Savory is a consultant ecologist and his views are controversial, but the FPS believes that they merit serious consideration and should be heard.

The idea of national parks and reserves in the sea has developed slowly, but the increasing popularity of underwater swimming, fishing and coral collecting makes it urgently necessary to protect marine life. Like their counterparts on land, marine parks are usually a great tourist attraction – Kenya has recently created two – and a careful balance has to be achieved, with some areas reserved for tourists and others as sanctuaries where also scientific studies can be made.

In the short space of twelve months Pakistan has laid wide-ranging plans for conserving her wildlife, hitherto completely neglected. On the recommendation of two World Wildlife Fund expeditions, led by Guy Mountfort, an international WWF trustee, two national parks and several reserves are being created which should give Pakistan a last chance to save the tiger, the snow leopard and several other seriously threatened mammals and birds.

Oil pollution of the sea used to be caused mainly by deliberate dumping of waste oil. Today this problem could be almost mastered by the ‘load on top’ system, but the chief cause remains accidents to tankers such as the Torrey Canyon. In this report on the Rome conference on the subject, held in October 1968, Lieutenant Colonel Boyle, former FPS secretary and a member of the British Advisory Committee on Oil Pollution of the Sea who represented the FPS, describes the working of the ‘load on top’ system and the discussions on the new problem. Lord Jellicoe, Chairman of the British Committee, presided at the conference.

In the spring of 1967 Philip Wayre and his wife took 15 pairs of the rare Swinhoe's pheasant, bred at the Ornamental Pheasant Trust, in Norfolk, of which he is Hon. Director, to Taiwan (Formosa), where this pheasant is endemic, to supplement the sadly reduced wild stock and also provide a captive breeding nucleus for further releases. This article describes the return of the pheasants, and also the wildlife situation in Taiwan, particularly the dangerous demands of the tourist trade for stuffed animals and birds, and for goods decorated with the gorgeous butterflies of Taiwan. These butterflies are being collected in millions to decorate plastic trays and tablecloths.