White-topped pitcher plants, among the most attractive members of the genus Sarracenia, are in great demand for floral displays, in the USA and Europe. It is doubtful whether current levels of exploitation are sustainable; there is no way of controlling harvesting for the domestic market and the monitoring of exports is difficult. As well as this pressure, wild populations are perhaps in even greater danger from changes in land use.

The FFPS has been involved for some time in conservation activities in the diminishing montane forests of east-central Africa. These montane forests form an upper sector of an even more endangered medium-altitude forest formation. Throughout their distribution, medium-altitude forests have been extensively disturbed by ever-increasing human activities. Extensive areas remain only in eastern Zaire, where there ststus is uncertain, and in Uganda. The Ugandan forests are now the focus of a major internationally financed development programme.

In the last 45 years the expansion and intensification of agriculture has meant that Europe has lost much of its permanent lowland grassland. Many species associated with this habitat are threatened as a result including several ground-nesting birds. The authors explore the opportunities that exist for conserving them.

An expedition recently mounted in north-eastern Brazil gathered evidence strongly indicating that Spix's macaw Cyanopsitta spixii is effectively extinct in the wild. The only hope of saving the species from total extinction now rests with the small captive population. Fieldwork suggested that habitat degradation played a part in the decline of the species and it was concluded that habitat conservation should be a major consideration in future efforts to save it. A fully integrated conservation package is proposed that reflects the multiplicity of conservation needs of Spix's macaw.