Community-based natural resource management has been accused of failing on social, economic or ecological grounds. Balanced assessments are rare, however, particularly in West Africa. This paper examines the first 10 years of Ghana's Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary using an evaluation framework that considers socioeconomic and ecological outcomes, as well as resilience mechanisms. Building upon traditional taboos against the killing of hippopotami, this initiative has attempted to conserve an imperilled large mammal, protect biodiversity and alleviate abject poverty amidst a bush meat crisis and complex ethnic diversity. Findings show that the Sanctuary has improved local livelihoods by spurring economic diversification and infrastructure development rates 2–8 times higher than in surrounding communities. Simultaneously, threats to biodiversity have subsided, hippopotamus numbers have remained stable and the Sanctuary's riparian habitats now harbour more bird species than comparable areas nearby. Improved social capital, true empowerment, an equitable distribution of benefits, ecological awareness among children and support for the Sanctuary, even amongst community members who were disadvantaged by its creation, speak to good long-term prospects. Risks remain, some of which are beyond the community's control, but evidence of socioecological resilience suggests that capacity exists to buffer risks and foster sustainability. Lessons learnt at Wechiau translate into recommendations for the planning, implementation and evaluation of future community-based conservation initiatives, including greater interdisciplinary integration and the use of adaptive co-management approaches.

Dispersal is fundamental to the persistence of wild populations. Historically, swift foxes Vulpes velox of the northern Great Plains of North America have been thought to be poor dispersers. Short-grass prairie is optimal habitat for swift foxes but can be fragmented in the northern Great Plains. We wanted to assess whether wild-born, juvenile swift foxes from two proximate but distinct reintroduced populations had potential to move from one population to the other. We found five animals exhibiting long bouts of dispersal, much further than averages previously reported. One female fox traversed the long distance between the two populations and survived for at least three breeding seasons in the wild. We believe our findings are significant for conservation because they show that swift foxes are not poor dispersers and that patches of short-grass prairie previously thought to be too isolated (> 25 km) for natural movement may be recolonized or be suitable for reintroductions of swift foxes.

Conservation programmes increasingly involve the translocation of animals to reinforce failing populations or establish new ones. To help guide translocation programmes of swift foxes (Vulpes velox) or other imperilled species, we aimed to discern factors affecting translocation success among reintroduced swift foxes in Canada. Post-release movements characterized three stages. In the initial acclimation phase, foxes moved erratically and quickly distanced themselves from release sites. During the establishment phase, distances from the release site did not change significantly but daily movements were more wide-ranging than those of concurrently tracked, resident swift foxes. In the final settlement phase, movements of translocated foxes reflected those of resident individuals. Radio-telemetry showed that survival and reproductive success were highest for swift foxes with small dispersal distances, suggesting that measures should be taken to acclimatize animals to release sites. Since females had lower survival rates than males, translocations should also use a greater proportion of females to establish balanced sex ratios in the population. Translocated juveniles dispersed less far but survived and reproduced as well as translocated adults, suggesting that juveniles can be used to establish translocated foxes in small, protected areas, while minimizing demographic effects on source populations. The fact that survival rates and litter sizes of translocated foxes were similar to those of resident animals indicates that translocation can be an effective reintroduction tool for this endangered species, and possibly other foxes.